


Unravel

by beautiful_suicide



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bullying, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Peter Parker, I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY MISTAKES, Kinda, Orphan Peter Parker, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Protective Tony Stark, Slow Build, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, its slightly whump, no beta we die like men, unedited, will edit later in future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-03-01 16:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18803785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautiful_suicide/pseuds/beautiful_suicide
Summary: [ON HIATUS] At age thirteen, Peter Parker has gone through much more tragedy than a kid should ever know. His parents died when he was young, he watched his uncle get murdered in front of him, his aunt was destroyed by cancer. After being placed in foster care, Peter starts digging into his ancestry when he starts questioning his appearance based on his parents genes. Things don’t make sense. Through hacking, DNA swatches, and sneaking around, Peter starts to unravel secrets that were veiled.OrAfter multiple tragedies in his life, Peter Parker discovers that Tony Stark is his biological father. How does this affect the way that he'll grow up in his late teens and how he'll mature as a person?





	1. Prologue/Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> hey all, so this is a new fic i'm working on. i'm working on three different fics at the same time but i love being stressed soooooo  
> also i love peter and tony's father/son relationship, i'm a little obsessed???  
> also i refuse to accept the ending of endgame, so i'm writing to cope with it

Peter stared aimlessly at the wall in front of him. Just two hours ago, he had been talking to May. She had been alive, sickly, but alive. She had been smiling. She had held his hands and listened to him talk about the activities they had done in class that day.

Now, the last image that he’ll have of his aunt is the sight of her hand falling limp from his as lights glared into his eyes from every angle in the room and sounds blared from the machines that were hooked up to her. He remembers being torn away from her and being pushed outside where a nurse held him tightly and tried to whisper reassurances in his ears. Peter couldn’t listen to her though, he was too busy listening as hard as he could to the sounds within the room he was pushed out of. He knew all too well what the long, high-pitched, continuous beep meant. He couldn’t believe that May had left him as well. Not even when the doctors came out to tell him the news that he already knew. He refused to believe it.

Clenching his fists, he felt another tear slip down his face as he was waiting in the lobby on the fifth floor of this hospital. He had one of the nurses sitting with him, patting his knee occasionally and trying to talk to him. It felt like he wasn’t in his body. He could occasionally feel the pats of the nurse’s hand, could hear the words of reassurance if he wanted to, but it felt like he couldn’t move, and his lungs felt like blocks of ice. His head was pounding, and his eyes ached. He felt numb, emotionally.

He saw two bodies stand in front of him with his peripheral vision, but his gaze never moved from the position it was locked in. A throat cleared once and then again. Peter reluctantly moved his gaze from the wall to the pair in from of him. They were wearing business suits, all tidied up with no scuff marks on their shiny black shoes. Peter felt a deep amount of resentment shift in his soul. He hated these men just from their attire. Why do they get to look so good and in perfect health while May had to suffer and pass on? It wasn’t fair.

“Peter Parker?” One of them questioned. Peter nodded slightly, unclenching his hands to clasp them together.

“We’re from Child Protective Services. We’re sorry to hear about your aunt. Do you have any one who can pick you up and take legal responsibility for you?”

Peter shook his head with his lip wobbling. Ben was dead. His parents were dead. May was the only adult that he had left in his life. The pair of partners looked at each other before one of them stepped away, taking out their cell phone.

“How old are you, Peter?”

“Thirteen.” He whispered, clenching his jaw. He would be turning fourteen in a month and it just _hurt_ to be reminded that May wasn’t going to be there on his next birthday.

“Wow, you’re getting so old.” Peter threw a slightly annoyed glance up at the man. He knows that he was just trying to make small talk, but he wasn’t five. He said nothing in response to the man. They waited in awkward silence until the man’s partner returned.

The person that returned looked at the other and nodded. Looking at Peter, he slightly smiled. “C’mon, kid. We have a place for you to stay.”

“But…Aunt May…” He said, confusion creeping into his eyes.

“We’ll take care of everything, Peter. Don’t worry. We have a family that is willing to take you in and to foster you for the undetermined future. They’re a really nice couple and they’re fostering three other kids as well. We think this will be the best place for you to settle into for the time being. We’ll take care of the paperwork and you shouldn’t have to sign anything, but you still might be seeing us a few times over the next couple of months.” A hand was guiding him through the lobby and into an elevator.

His entire life was being decided for him. His last string of family was torn from him and now his life was being decided for him by strangers. Strangers who he didn’t even know the name of. Was he going to continue to go to the same school? Would he have to start all over in a new place with a new name and a new family? He couldn’t breathe.

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened into a full lobby of sick kids and worried parents, all waiting to be seen. Peter’s heart clenched painfully. What he would give to have that kind of life; a mother and a father, affection and love coming from the people who birthed you. Peter clenched his jaw again and sniffed back the emotions that were clogging up his throat and nostrils. The hand on his shoulder led him out of the hospital and into the parking lot that was brimming full of cars and ambulances. He walked down the flight of stairs with his body feeling like he was floating on air. His head wasn’t attached to his shoulders and his hands were barely hanging on by stitches. He was led to a black car with four doors and gently pushed to sit down in the backseat. Once seated, he just stared into nothing. His head hung down as if he was looking at the floor, but he was taking in nothing.

He heard the engine start and felt the car start to move.

“Peter? Where’d you live? We need to get some of your things before we head to your new house.”

Peter’s throat tightened but somehow, he was able to get the address out in a decently loud voice. His heart seemed to get heavy with every passing second and his stomach started hurting as he noticed they were getting closer and closer to his apartment. His head started spinning when the car parked right next to his apartment. The man in the front in the driver seat turned to look at Peter.

“Do you want to go up and grab some stuff, kid? We can get it if you want us to.”

Peter gulped. “I-I can do it. Can I have a few minutes?” He asked in a small voice, gripping the seat beneath him with shaking and sweaty hands. The men nodded.

He got out of the car clumsily and slowly made his way to his apartment. His old apartment. He made his way up the stairwell and eventually was staring at the door that led to his life. He pulled out the key that was in his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing the door open. He was met with the aroma of cinnamon and caramel, two scents that May always had flowing throughout the place. She wanted it to smell homey and welcome, which the two scents always brought her.

With his eye-sight getting more blurrier by the second, he sharply inhaled and dragged his feet to his room. He turned in a slow circle once he got in bedroom, taking it in for one last time. He was never going to go to bed in this room again. He was never gonna wake up to May’s pancakes on Sunday mornings, he was never going to hear her frustration when she had to get him up for school. He was going to lose everything that he knew and everything that was associated with May. He was barely aware of that fact that he had fallen to his knees, his head was pressed deeply into his bed with his hands fisting themselves into the duvet. He didn’t hear himself, but loud, sorrowful cries were escaping him. The air that he was trying to breathe was getting caught in his throat and catching right near his lungs, getting stuck and frozen there. He started gasping and his hands went up to pull at his hair. _Too much, too much, too much._

Squeezing his eyes shut tightly, he brought his hands down to wipe at his eyes roughly before he stood up. Breathing in and out harshly, he walked over to his closet and pulled out a duffel bag. He started blindly throwing in clothes, not even pulling them off the hangers. Once everything was pulled off the rack, he went over to his dresser and randomly threw his socks, underwear, and jeans on top of the other items. He pulled out his only suitcase and opened it, shoving in shoes, books, a Lego set. He kept the suitcase opened and made his way to the bathroom.

His heart was still pounding out of his chest and tears were streaming down his face, but it felt like the longer he stayed in this apartment, the more it felt like he was gonna die. He wanted to die. He wanted to be with May. He didn’t want to be alone in this world.

He opened up the door and shut his eyes tightly, seeing May’s perfume and hairbrush on the counter. He grabbed his essentials; toothbrush, hairbrush, shampoo, body wash, deodorant, and other things. He brought the gathered items and threw them in his suitcase before making his way to the room at the far end of the hall.

Briefly hesitating outside of May’s door, he pushed the door open and he refused to look at the bed with its unkept covers strewn about and crinkled sheets covering the mattress. He went to the closet and opened it, keeping his head down as tears streamed profusely down his face. He opened up the box on the floor of the closet, the box that he knew held pictures of his late family. He couldn’t bring them all but he grabbed the stack of lose photographs before shutting the box and putting it back. He froze in the doorframe of May’s room and internally whispered goodbye to that room before tracking back to his room. He grabbed a few picture frames that were hanging on the wall, not wanting to lose those memories either. He put the items in his hands in the suitcase. Shaking, he zipped up the suitcase and set it upright on the floor. He looked around his room before deciding to grab his fleece blanket (which had a Star Wars design on it) and his lone stuffed animal (a ratty, old and dull puppy that was missing an ear). He unzipped the duffel bag and stuffed the blanket into the bag and zipped it back up. He threw the duffel over his shoulder and grabbed his suitcase with his free hand, the hand that wasn’t clenching the stuffed animal.

Peter didn’t care that he might be too old to have a stuffed animal, it was comfort for him and it was item that he had had since he was about one years old. It linked him to his family and he needed it right now.

He walked slowly through the apartment, taking it in one last time. He stared through his blurry vision at the kitchen, envisioning May standing at the stove and cooking breakfast like she did every day. He still felt the ghost of her kiss on his forehead that she left there that morning. Biting his lip, he opened the door and exited the apartment, feeling like a certain coldness had just drifted over and into him. He shut the door and locked it even though that didn’t really matter anymore since no one else was going to live there. He stared at the shut door before leaning his head against the wood and letting a small, deep sob out. It felt so wrong leaving, he didn’t want to leave. He whispered a wet goodbye to the empty apartment before walking away from the door.

It felt so wrong.

He moved blindly down the stairs until he was back on the ground level. He barely even knew he was moving until he was at the back of the car and the truck was open. He lifeless threw his suitcase and duffel in the trunk, keeping his stuffed animal in his hand. He numbly opened the back door and sat down, mindlessly putting on his seatbelt. He leaned his head down and pushed his face into his stuffed animal, letting his tears drip into the fur.

“The Brown family actually lives right here in Queens, so you’ll be able to still attend the same school and not have to lose everything familiar to you. That’ll be great, yeah?” One of the men in the front told Peter, trying to make small talk. Peter didn’t respond, just clenched his eyes tighter and bit his lip harder as he choked down a sob. It would be great if he was in his own bed with the sound of the living room TV echoing down the hallway as he heard May laughing at whatever was playing on TV.

Numbly, Peter came back to his senses as he felt a hand on his shoulder which was leading him down a hallway. His face felt raw and his eyes were swollen. His cheeks were damp. He heard the sound of his suitcase rolling behind him and he heard the swing of his duffel bag. His hand was still clenched around the stuffed animal. He was held to a stop in front of a brown, wooden door. It was opened, and Peter saw an empty, lifeless room that held a twin bed, a dresser, and a desk. He felt the hand pat his back and heard his duffel bag and suitcase get sat on the floor. He heard the door close.

He looked at the lifeless room and he couldn’t contain his sobs this time. Everything was changing too fast. He knelt down on the floor and curled around his stuffed animal. Nothing was okay. It felt like his whole world was ending and he wanted to just disappear.

Why was life so cruel to him? What did he do?

He ached for the hold of his aunt. Instead he was met with the hold of the cold that had enveloped him earlier that night.


	2. Oscorp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You seem bright and intrigued in our business. What’s your name, young man?” Right in front of him was Norman Osborn, smiling bright at the teenager. Peter’s brain froze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is really quick update, quite longer than i thought it would be tbh  
> i think my writing style changes a few times in this chapter but again, no beta, so i'm sorry lol

Eventually, waking up in his new room doesn’t crush his soul. At first, waking up in the unfamiliar room caused Peter’s heart to clench painfully as he stared at the walls that weren’t his and belonged to a stranger’s family. Some days, he wished to curl back up and close his eyes and hopefully, he’d wake back up in his bedroom.

But slowly as months passed by, it didn’t hurt to wake up without May there anymore. There was always an ache in his chest and hole that couldn’t be filled with his foster family, but he had his memories of her and he cherished them dearly. He couldn’t stay and stew in his grief forever.

The first month of May being gone, Peter spent most of his time either at school or in his room. He barely spoke, ate only when he had to, and laid in bed most of the time. He didn’t have energy to do anything besides lay in bed and let the tears stream from his eyes silently. He went through the pictures that he brought with him almost daily, looking at the happy faces of his late family. There was barely any photos of his mother and father but there was plenty of photos of May and Ben. He would stroke their faces and daydream about how life would be if they were still around.

By the second month, he had slowly started to come out of his shell. He started participating and getting to know his foster family. The couple, Samantha and Robert, were nice enough. They made breakfast every morning and drove the children they were fostering to and from their schools. They seemed and acted like the picture-perfect parents, which was a little odd at first, but Peter eventually got used to it. They were all smiles, happiness, and ‘pats-on-the-back’. They were involved in all of their foster children’s schools and activities, wanting to have an active role in their life. So, they were pretty cool.

Two of the other children were older than Peter and one of them was younger than him. The oldest, Adrian, was 18 and would be graduating high school that upcoming spring. The second oldest, Katherine, was 16 and in her junior year of high school. The youngest, Christopher, was 9 and in fourth grade. Peter just turned 14, a week after May had passed away, and was in his freshman year of high school. Peter had been able to skip a grade in elementary school due to his advanced education, so he was the youngest in his class.

The other kids that he lived with were pretty okay. Adrian was quiet but involved. He was a member of his Beta club at his high school and was on the student council. Katherine was loud and giggly. She was the only girl in the family besides Samantha. She was a part of choir and her school’s Gardening Club. Christopher was on his school’s little league team and participated in a lot of after school programs. Peter was in band, robotics club, and decathlon. So together, they all combined for a pretty busy ‘family’ life. Adrian gave a hand to Peter whenever he needed a second opinion on his project for robotics or needed to be quizzed for decathlon practice. Katherine would listen to his practices for band if he would listen to her practice for choir. Peter attended Christopher’s games and, in the end, received a big hug from the small guy himself; small, warm arms wrapping tightly around his legs.

It was quite weird for Peter for him to transition so smoothly into this foster family. It was a rough, rocky start for a month but after Peter stopped wallowing in his sadness and grief and allowed himself to be pulled into socializing, he fit right in. Maybe it’s because everyone here has lost their original family and had to come together to find somewhere to belong. Somewhere where they mattered.

He might have transitioned well into family life, but his school life was still rough. Whenever he went back to school, he could only feel the stares of people on his back and the whispers that echoed around him. Everyone talked about him when Ben died but now that May died as well, he was known as the ‘orphan’ boy in his school. The entire school knew that he was living with a foster family so not only was he the ‘orphan boy’ but also the ‘charity case’ and ‘scholarship sucker’ since he was able to get into Midtown School of Science and Technology on a scholarship. School wasn’t the best place at the moment. Even after getting into decathlon, he was teased and made fun of. Especially by Eugene Thompson or Flash, as he likes to go by.

Flash was in the same grade as Peter but was one of the oldest in the grade. While Peter was small and scrawny, Flash was taller and bulkier. Flash had more popularity in their grade, so if he said Peter was an asshole and licked the ground for crumbs of food, it would be believed by most of the other students. Students were quick to follow the words of one well known student rather than talk to both parties. In addition to verbal assault, Peter is very familiar with the feeling of lockers in his shoulder blades and desk corners in his hip bones. He has been shoved into countless lockers, pushed aside into desks, tripped in the middle of the hall. Teachers see these things happening to Peter, of course they do, but they don’t do anything. Flash’s parents have too big of a hold on the school’s financial situation for them to speak up about their antagonistic son. The teachers would just smile sadly at him and help up and help him along to his next class.

Besides the entire school being against him, he did have one close friend. His name is Edward Leeds, better known as Ned. Peter isn’t quite sure why he goes by Ned instead of Edward, seeing as it’s not his middle name, but Peter never questioned it. Ned was one of the only students there that actually enjoyed Peter’s presence. Ned had similar interests as Peter such as Star Wars, action movies, Legos, and technology. Ned also was on the decathlon team with Peter, so that helped the pair of them get closer. Classes seemed to be less straining with Ned next to him.

Slowly, Peter started to develop a routine and a system. He had his foster family as support, who seemed to genuinely care about him as a person. He had Ned, who looked out for him in school and helped get familiar with how the high school worked. His routine consisted of school, socializing, and feeling like Peter Parker again.

Peter feels as if he had lost himself when May died and was replaced by a cold mold that moved for him. He had felt numb and empty for a while when May passed, he still feels that way sometimes on the bad days. Slowly, the person that he was before May passed started to come out once again but at the same time, that person was still broken. The cracks of this broken person was filled with the personality and attitude of the new lifestyle. It was what was holding him together. He liked the ‘new’ him, but he missed and thought often of the ‘old’ Peter.

* * *

 

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

The annoying sounds of his alarm clock blared through his cotton-wool filled mind. Peter barely opened his eyes, which were still crusted over from his sleep. He threw his arm out from underneath the covers to flop ceremoniously on his nightstand, slapping against the wood until he finally managed to hit his alarm clock. The annoying beeping finally stopped, and Peter sighed in relief, bringing his hands up to rub at his eyes. He threw his hands back and stretched as far as possible, letting out a small groan. He slowly relaxed his muscles and opened his eyes to stare blurrily at the ceiling. He relished in the delight of laying in his bed for a few minutes before making himself get up.

He looked at the picture frame that was on his desk of May and Ben. He lifted a hand and ghosted it over their faces. He smiled at their faces before lowering his hand. He yawned as he walked out of his room to the kitchen. He sat down at the kitchen table and lowered his head, resting it on the wood as the smell of syrup and toasted bread wafting around him. A hand rubbed against his neck and Peter hummed. By the feel of the average sized, slightly calloused hand, Peter knew that it was Adrian.

“Chin up, pipsqueak. Food’s almost done.” Peter lifted his head and slouched, blinking at the older man. Adrian chuckled, ruffled Peter’s hair before walking back to the stove to help Samantha with breakfast.

This was how every morning in the Brown family went. Robert and Samantha would wake up first and take care of the dogs, Charlotte and Simon, first. Then Robert would go about waking Christopher and Adrian while Samantha started working on breakfast for the entire family. Adrian would then wake up Katherine as Robert helped Christopher wake up fully and get ready for the day. Adrian would then go to the kitchen to help Samantha out with the huge breakfast load. Katherine took forever to get ready, so that’s why Peter woke up last and ate breakfast in his pajamas, because by the time she got done, breakfast was done, and Peter had enough time to get ready after he ate.

A plate full of waffles and eggs was sat in front of him and Peter’s mouth started watering almost immediately. He barely let Adrian douse the waffles with syrup and butter before attacking the plate with a fork. He got a fond glare from the older man before Adrian rolled his eyes and threw napkins at Peter.

“You always make a mess.” Adrian groaned, picking on Peter. Peter grinned around a mouthful of waffles at him, lips slick with syrup, and hummed happily at him. Adrian was probably the one he was closest to in the house. Peter shared a connection with Adrian, it just happened naturally. They flowed into a brotherly relationship with each other slowly but smoothly.

Peter was so focused on his food that he barely noticed that the once near empty table was filled to the brim with food, plates, and people. Everyone was sat around the table now, shoving food in their mouths and conversations being passed around. Katherine was scrolling through her social media as she aimlessly ate her eggs, Christopher was eating his cereal dutifully with a small happy grin (he didn’t like syrup or eggs, so he ate cereal a lot in the morning), Adrian was eating slowly as if he was savoring every bite of food while his foster parents exchanged fond looks and ate their food carefully, making sure to not get syrup over their clothes.

Peter scooped his last bite of eggs off his plate and sighed sadly at the empty plate, wanting more even though he knew he didn’t need anymore. He went to rush off to get ready when he heard a throat clear behind him. He turned around and met the eye of his foster dad, who then shot a glance at Peter’s place. Peter grinned sheepishly before grabbing his plate and rinsing it off in the sink, washing it as well and sitting it in the dish draining rack. He quickly turned around and headed off to his room, throwing a quick _‘thank you_ ’ to Samantha and Adrian for breakfast.

Peter made quick work of getting ready for school. In less than ten minutes, he had his clothes changed, his teeth brushed, his hair was combed, and his backpack was on his shoulder with all his materials inside. He shut off his light and made his way to the living room, petting Charlotte on the head as he passed. Samantha was grabbing her keys off the table, gesturing for Katherine and Adrian to grab their stuff and start heading out. She kissed Peter and Christopher on the top of their heads and kissed Robert’s cheek, said goodbye to the dogs then made her way to her car.

Samantha usually took Adrian and Katherine to school because they attending the same public high school in Queens. Robert took Christopher and Peter to school because Peter attended Midtown School of Science and Technology, which is a private school and took longer to get to than Adrian and Katherine’s high school, and Christopher didn’t have to be in school until an hour after the other three had to be in school, so it gave Robert plenty of time to take Peter to school and to get Christopher to his on time.

Robert patted Peter’s shoulder and hefted Christopher’s bag onto his shoulders. The trio made their way out to Robert’s car, watching briefly as Samantha and the other two left. On the way to his school, Peter pulled out his chemistry book and started studying ahead, wanting to be slightly familiar with the information before it was presented in class later that week.

“You got your permission slip, Pete?” Robert asked, looking at him through the rear-view mirror. Peter hummed accordingly. He’s had it signed and in his backpack for a week now. “Have lunch money?” Peter thought carefully before shaking his head. “Remind me to give you a twenty before you take off, okay? Don’t need to be going hungry on your field trip.” Peter nodded and thanked him, smiling softly.

Eventually, they pulled up in front of Peter’s school. Robert gave him a twenty and ruffled his hair.

“Don’t have too much fun on your trip. Where was it to again? Obscure?”

“Oscorp. We’re going there for our chemistry class to learn about where careers in science can take us and what they do at Oscorp.” Peter replied, limbs trembling from excitement. He’s been waiting for this field trip since it was announced back in January. He only had to wait a month for it, but the wait seemed to take forever.

“Sounds really interesting bud. It’s ending after school hours, right? Text us what time your teacher says you’ll be back. Have a good day. Pete.” Robert said warmly, smiling at the teenager before slowly driving off. Peter waved at the car as it pulled away before entering the school building. He barely had gotten about 20 feet down the hallway before an arm wrapped around him.

“This trip is going to be totally awesome. Not to mention that we don’t have to participate in any classes all day besides first period.” Ned’s voice came from the right side of him and Peter grinned at the boy. Ned was thankfully taking the same class as him, so he got to share this experience with him.

“I wouldn’t mind attending classes, I enjoy most of them just, ya know, without…” Peter gestured with his head down the hall where Flash and his friends stood, hollering at something unknown. Ned nodded and rolled his eyes.

“I think everyone would enjoy class if the rich punky jerk wasn’t there. Sadly, we can’t get what we want.” Peter nodded sadly to Ned’s words, swallowing down the disgustful taste of _dislike_ in his throat as he glanced at Flash. High school in general would be better without Flash.

Together, the pair of them walked to Peter’s locker, where Peter shoved most of his useless textbooks in there; Calculus, English, Geography, and other novels. He kept his Chemistry and Physics textbooks not only because he wanted to read a little further on the bus to Oscorp, but he also needed it to read in his free time at home. He enjoyed learning.

Peter waved bye to Ned and headed off to his first class, which just happened to be Physics. Sitting down at his table, he rested his elbow on the table and set his head in his hand and sighed. This field trip needed to come _sooner_.

Thankfully, first period passed by relatively quickly with information being fed to the students. Five minutes before the second period bell rang, the intercom buzzed.

_‘All students in Mr. Cobbwell’s chemistry class that are going on the field trip, please report to the cafeteria with your signed permission slip. Again, all students in Mr. Cobbwell’s chemistry class that are going on the field trip, please report to the cafeteria with your signed permission slip.’_

The intercom cut off and Peter internally cheered. He grabbed his bag and exited the classroom, immediately spotting Ned, who was coming out of his English class. He sped up to get right next to him and bumped shoulders with him.

In the cafeteria, they were read the rules to be followed on the field trip. Peter half-listened, excitement overcoming him. Before long, they were aboard the bus and Peter could barely contain himself. He found himself rambling to Ned about Norman Osborn and what their company has achieved in the last ten years. Ned enthusiastically responded back, encouraging the conversation.

“You guys are a bunch of losers.” A voice sounded in front of them. Peter looked up and saw MJ, Michelle Jones, staring (more like glaring) at the pair. Peter shrugged. He didn’t mind being a loser.

“Does that make you a loser too, since you’re sitting back here with us and no one else is back here?” Ned asked, gesturing to the back of the bus which was empty compared to the middle and front.

“No, I just hate people and didn’t want to be near many. Two versus fifteen isn’t a hard choice.” MJ replied before going back to her book.

Peter looked at Ned and pulled his lips down in an extreme frown and shrugged. It was her own personal choice. Before Peter forgot, he brought out his phone and shot Robert a text.

_You should be able to pick me up at 5:00 PM :^)_

He barely had put his phone back in his pocket at they pulled up to the building. The structure of the building was huge. Peter’s mouth was gaping looking at the area.

The inside was even better than the outside. High ceilings, glossy floors, wide windows, the entire building seemed inviting and friendly. Peter was so in his thoughts that he flinched when a hand clasped his shoulder.

“You seem bright and intrigued in our business. What’s your name, young man?” Right in front of him was Norman Osborn, smiling bright at the teenager. Peter’s brain froze.

“P-Peter Parker, sir. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Parker? You wouldn’t happen to be the son of Richard and Mary Parker, would you?” Peter stared through narrow eyes at the man, wondering how he knew his parents names when he barely knew them himself. Peter nodded, despite wanting to not answer.

“Your parents used to work here. They were some of our greatest geneticists and experiment analysts. Are you going to be following in your parents footsteps?” Norman asked, very interested in Peter’s life. Peter shrugged, not really sure what he wanted to do. On one hand, he could follow his parents footsteps but on the other hand, he could go after biomedical sciences or astrophysics.

“It’s okay to not know at this moment, you still have plenty of time to decide. Hey, here’s a thought, how about I give you a little behind the scenes tour of Oscorp and then if you’re interested, you could think on it and perhaps start an internship here with us in a year or so.” Peter’s eyebrows raised. He has never heard about anyone getting a tour of Oscorp from behind doors.

“I would love to but does Mr. Cobbwell know that I’m going with you? No offense sir, I just don’t want to disrespect my teacher.” Norman smiled and clasped Peter’s shoulder.

“I already discussed it with him, Mr. Cobbwell seems to be very proud that one of his students has managed to catch my interest. Say, Mr. Parker, what subject are you most interested in in school?” Norman made conversation as confidential doors were being pushed open.

“Chemistry, sir. And perhaps physics.” Peter answered as his eyes widened. In front of him was rows and rows of insects.

“Welcome, Mr. Parker, to our main experimental room. These are our some of our test subjects for new medicines and technologies that we’ve developed; we don’t like using animals such as rabbits or dogs, so we decided to use an insect instead that most of everyone dislikes. The spider.” Norman explained. “We all kind of spiders here, from black widows to brown recluses to wolf spiders to tarantulas. Non-venomous to venomous, non-poisonous to poisonous; we have almost any spider you can think of. Why don’t you take a look around? Ask any questions that you need answered or need clarifying on.”

Peter did a 360 sweep of the room, taking in all the cages and containers with spiders in them. There had to be at least 100 of them. He walked off to the right and stared into some of the containers, looking at their information that was printed on the side. He stopped and stared at one of the containers which just contained a normal house spider, but the spider was no where to be seen in the box. The information on the box even said, ‘ _Do not touch without protection’_. Peter assumed it was just hiding in a corner and reached around to the left side of the container when he noticed that the lid was off just slightly. Peter reared back a bit before moving his hand slightly more to the left.

Within about five seconds, Peter hissed and withdrew his hand, looking at the welt that had started to form. He looked where his hand had just been and sure enough, there was a small little brown spider that seemed to be cackling at him. He stuffed his hand and in pocket and called for Norman. “Mr. Osborn, there’s a spider lose.”

Norman Osborn was by his side in seconds. He looked where Peter was gesturing, and he chuckled. “It’s just a normal spider, there wasn’t any tests done on it yet. The information on the side of the box was just a precaution. I’ll call someone in to put it back in its container.”

Sure enough, someone popped up almost immediately and placed the spider back in the container. Peter stared at the insect and smirked internally. _That’s what you get for biting me._ Peter spent about twenty more minutes in the room before Norman walked him back out to his class.

“That was really intriguing, thank you, Mr. Osborn.” Peter said gratefully, knowing that it’s a rare offer. Norman patted his back. “No, thank you, Mr. Parker. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a truly genuine face in this building. Think about the internship, yeah? Have a good day, Mr. Parker.” Norman said before turning back the way that they came. Peter turned back to his class and grinned at Ned, delving deep into how going behind the scenes of Oscorp was, completely forgetting about his spider bite on his hand.

Later when the class arrived back at the school, Peter wasn’t feeling the greatest. He felt very shaky and faint, his hands were trembling and sweaty and his vision was blurred, even more so with his glasses on. Peter coughed into his elbow and waved weakly to Mr. Cobbwell. He said goodbye to Ned and made his way to Samantha, who was waiting on him in the parking lot.

He plopped down in the seat and heaved in a breath.

“How was the trip, honey? Did you have fun?”

Peter nodded, wrapping an arm around his abdomen as he sucked in air around his teeth. His teeth were chattering against each other while his hands trembled. Samantha looked at him in the rear view mirror.

“You don’t look so good, Peter. Are you feeling okay?”

Peter started to nod but then shook his head when he felt nausea building in the back of his throat. “I-I feel really sick, Sam.”

Sam gave him a sympathetic look. “We’ll get you to bed immediately with some medicine in you. You probably won’t be going to school tomorrow so don’t worry about waking up early. I’m sorry you feel so poorly.”  

  Peter grinned weakly before leaning his head against the window, letting the feeling of the car underneath him distract him from what he was feeling. His head had been pounding and his insides hurt. He didn’t fall asleep, but he did drift off, only coming back to his senses when his shoulder was shook. Peter grunted and stared through blurred vision at whoever was in front of him.

“Peter, bud, we need to go inside now.” The voice sounded wobbly in his ears. It was Adrian. Carefully, Peter peeled himself off the seat and outside of the car. The moment he tried to stand without holding onto the car, his knees buckled, and he barely was caught underneath the arms. Peter grunted again and struggled to get his feet under him. Worried and concerned voices reached his ears.

It seemed like a mile-long trip before Peter got to his own room. Adrian was helping him along, carrying most of his weight. Peter whimpered as he was lowered to his bed and curled up almost immediately, turning his body so that his head was sideways on the pillow and he was able to draw his knees up to his chest. His entire body was trembling now. His covers were pulled out from underneath him and lightly put on top of him. The back of a hand was held to his forehead. More concerned voices reached his ears.

Peter wasn’t really sure how he went from feeling so good to so poorly in a small amount of time. He was fine that morning but now he couldn’t stop shaking, his head was pounding, his insides were burning, his heart was working at double the pace, and it felt like his brain was slowly melting inside of him.

Peter barely noticed when he stared to drift off into unease.

_Heat. Burning heat._

_All he could feel was heat, it was inside of him and all around him._

_Why was it so hot?_

Peter came back to his senses and squinted in the darkness at the clock that read 2:13 AM. His senses slowly came to him and he noticed that his vision was clearer than earlier. Peter didn’t focus on that so much, as he quickly fell asleep again.

_BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG._

_CRINKLE. CRUNCH. PATTER._

Peter was crying when he woke up, big tears streaming down his face. There was banging in his ears and he couldn’t figure out what was happening. It felt like gunshots inside his head. He looked at his window and noticed that the mist was matching up with what he was hearing.

He was hearing the light mist as gunshots in his head. He could hear the _mist_. He heard crunching and crinkling of something that wasn’t directly in his room, heard the pattering of what sounded like feet. He could hear laughter that didn’t sound like anyone in this family and could hear the sound of the television downstairs. Peter sobbed. He wanted to hear the darkness of his room, why couldn’t it be quiet?

He fell back asleep with tears streaming down his face.

* * *

 When he woke up again, it was two days after the field trip had taken place. Peter woke slowly and felt stiff, as if he had exercised for a long time. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, grabbing his cover and going to throw it off of him. Only the cover didn’t get tossed to the other side of the bed but was stuck to his hand. Peter stared at his hand in worry, shaking it back and forth and even yanked at his hand.

That was when Peter realized that he was seeing things perfectly with his glasses. His breathing wasn’t shallow like it normally was, but instead sounded normal. Peter, in his fright, was able to get the cover to settle on the bed. He stared at his hands and brought them closer to his face, observing them. They looked like his normal hands, but his normal hands wouldn’t stick to a cover.

 _Stick_.

He walked over to his wall on a whim and put his hand to it. He was able to pull his hand away easily. His brow furrowed, and he put his hand back and tried to mentally attach his hand to the wall. This time when he tried to pull away, he couldn’t. Peter stared in amazement. He then put his other hand on the wall and did the same. He repeated the process with his feet. Before he knew it, he was on the ceiling, clinging only with the soles of feet and palms of his hands. Quickly heading back to the floor, Peter started to freak out.

He shouldn’t be able to cling to walls and crawl.  What had happened in the last two days that changed?

Immediately when he thought of it, his glance went to his hand where the spider bite was at. It was completely healed now. That was the only thing that was different. The spider was just a spider, wasn’t it? The sign on the side of the container came back to his mind, ‘ _Do not let out without protection’_.

 _House spider, my ass_. Peter thought.

He heard a door shut. It wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t his house, it was next door. Peter tilted his head. Adhesive skin, super-hearing, what else could have changed? Out of curiosity, Peter put a hand under his bed and lifted with ease. Peter let out a sound of amazement. Before, he could barely lift up a corner of the bed with struggle but now he could lift the entire bed and not break a sweat?

He didn’t have time to test his theory of what else he could do because he heard someone coming up the stairs, sounding light but steady. Maybe Adrian?

Peter sat himself on the bed and willed himself to not stick to anything, not wanting to freak out his foster family. The door opened, and Adrian popped his head in. Peter saw his expression bright considerably.

“Pete! You’re awake, how do you feel?”

“Good. Like really good. Better than new, actually.” Peter responded, wrapping his arms around his knees. Adrian cocked his head in curiosity.

“Less than twelve hours ago, you were writhing in pain and had a fever of 103 degrees.” Peter’s eyes widened. 103 degrees? He couldn’t even remember what had happened.

“I’m just glad to see you awake, you had me worried for a bit.” Adrian admitted. Peter grinned at him and accepted the hug from Adrian, silently talking to himself in his head and telling himself to not stick to Adrian. Adrian ruffled Peter’s hair before walking back out, stopping to pick up a shirt of Peter’s and tossed it at Peter.

Peter, without even thinking about it, had grabbed it out of the air and was holding it curiously in his hand. He looked up at Adrian and saw him looking at him thoughtfully.

“Who knew? You should try out for catcher for a baseball team.” Adrian teased. Peter groaned and threw the shirt at the wall after Adrian left. He apparently threw it harder than he thought, seeing as it smacked harshly against the wall and left a dent. Peter felt his jaw drop. He closed it after a few seconds.

Something weird was going on and it had to have come from that spider bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline for this story so far:  
> July 2015 – May Parker dies due to aggressive brain cancer  
> August 2015 – Peter is put into a foster family  
> February 2016 – Field trip to Oscorp, Peter is bitten by spider and mutates
> 
> leave me a comment and kudo, maybe follow me on twitter: [@btsfxxkmeup](https://twitter.com/btsfxxkmeup)


	3. Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And Peter had been so careful, he didn’t feel like anything was going wrong. No one asked any questions, he wasn’t being scrutinized, school was going by normally and his home life was still going smoothly. He still had plenty of his chemicals left from two months, barely making a dent in them. Everything was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hate that i get sudden motivation write and wanna write like five thousand words in a sitting when my wrists ache afterwards but motivation is sparse nowadays  
> thank you for all the kudos and comments!  
> p.s. i know NOTHING about science. the chemical structure of the webs that i;ve inputted is based on the small amount of research i had to do but i cannot say this is possible or not but then again, this fic is based on a fictional character who uses fictional webs to fictionally swing from building to building. please do not bash me for the science lmao

When Peter returned to school the following week, his legs wouldn’t stop shaking. He wore his glasses as a precaution. He didn’t really need them anymore, but he couldn’t just randomly stop wearing them. Maybe, he could start acting like he was wearing his contacts next week? He had never been a big fan of them. but he could probably convince everyone else that he got over the dislike.

His hands fisted the denim of his jeans as he sat in his last class of the day. He made sure not to put too much strength into his movements, seeing as he did that at home and ended up ripping three of his shirts that he had to sneakily throw away.

So many things were changing. He had super strength now apparently. His skin had adhesive texture to it which allowed him to stick to walls and items. His vision was crystal clear now and his asthma has basically left. He had this nagging sensation at the base of his skull that would flare up; it was like he knew something was going to happen. It flared up once right before Flash tried to trip him and Peter was able to side step him. Flash had got an enraged look on his face and Peter knew in the back of his mind to never avoid Flash again.

That was another thing he was learning. Just because he had the ability to be a part of track or football with his new enhanced senses, it didn’t mean he should. Peter Parker before the spider bite wouldn’t be able to so, Peter Parker shouldn’t be able to now. So, Peter was just stuck here with his new senses and was unable to change in any sort of way because it would draw eyes to his life, draw attention to how ‘boring Parker’ now suddenly was able to be so athletic and strong.

Peter blinked furiously a few times, arms slightly trembling. He had to change in some sort of way. He couldn’t just change and not…do something with it. Peter stared at the white board in front of him, scribbling down the notes on the board but not processing them. The squeak of the marker against the board was irritating on another level, it was almost like nails on a chalkboard. The combined sounds of squeaky sneakers against linoleum, hushed whispers that sounded like chattering that was happening right inside of his head, the buzz of the electricity, all it combined into a big mess that Peter was too tired to try and separate.

The last bell of the day rang, and Peter hurriedly shoved his notebooks and textbooks into his bag, exiting the room before anyone else had exited. He just wanted to hurry on outside and wait for Robert to pick him up. At least outside, the noises were dulled down a little bit since there was no where for the sound to echo so furiously.

He sat down on the steps outside of the school and watched as the other kids either loaded into buses or entered their parents cars. Some kids walked down the sidewalk.

One thing, Peter had noticed, that didn’t come with the spider-bite was the fact that Peter couldn’t make his own organic webs. Peter was immensely happy about this fact, he would’ve had an external crisis if he suddenly could make webs expel from himself.

Peter sat, lost in his thoughts when his eyes focused on a girl walking in front of him. The nagging sense in the back of his head was lightly making an appearance. Peter figured it wasn’t for him, seeing as it started as soon as he looked at the girl. Peter, on a whim, got up and walked a few feet behind the girl and her friends. The nagging sense got a bit louder the longer he followed her.

Peter was unsure of what he was doing but it felt like he needed to follow her. The girl and her friends split up, the friends heading to the buses while the girl went to walk across the street. Peter turned back, not wanting to follow the girl too far incase Robert showed up on time. Peter got about fifteen to twenty feet away from the road when he heard the screeching sound of tires at the same time his nagging feeling flew up to his throat and choked up. He turned around at the sound and saw the girl he had been following get clipped by the car that was screeching.

Peter, astounded, stood frozen as a bystander. Was that why his sense was going haywire? Had something inside of him detected that the girl was going to get hurt? She wasn’t badly hurt, just winded and cradling her left leg from what Peter could see. Peter’s throat closed up and he walked away, not wanting to be a bystander anymore. He walked back to the front of the school and sat down, watching from a distance as an ambulance pulled up next to the fallen girl and the stopped car. He heard whispers from the paramedics about how the girl probably dislocated her leg as well as sprained her ankle. There was minor cuts, but they weren’t major.

Peter knew it wasn’t his fault that she was hurt but it felt like he could’ve helped her. He had felt that something was going to happen, he even followed her on a whim. He should’ve just walked the extra ten feet to follow her instead of turning around. Peter, so lost in his thoughts, didn’t even notice that Robert had pulled up in front of the school until a horn blared. His head shot up and he looked at the car, sighing before heaving himself up and towards the car. He entered the car and noticed that Adrian was with him in the front, messing around on his phone.

“You seemed lost in your thoughts, Pete. Anything bothering you?” Robert asked from the front, looking at him from the rear-view mirror. Ever since Peter got so ill, Robert and Samantha had been hovering a little bit, which isn’t bad but was getting old quickly.

“No, I’m okay, Robert. Thank you.” Peter answered quietly, sitting his backpack against the door and leaning against it. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the window. He felt the stares of Adrian on him, obviously catching onto the flat tone in his voice. Peter kept his eyes shut with resolve, not wanting to meet the questioning gaze.

Before long, they were home and Peter rushed immediately to his room with the excuse of homework flying off his tongue at the participants in the house. He shut his door and locked it, leaning against it for a second before sitting on his bed. He looked at the small TV that was set on his dresser, grabbing the remote next to his bed and turned it on. Immediately, the news channel was on.

_“In other news, after a devasting accident occurring in Lagos, a unanimous decision was reached within the United Nations, our government and the general public that the Avengers need to be held accountable for their actions within battle. Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, is currently on his way to meet with the Avengers to discuss what is known as the ‘Sokovia Accords’._

_“The affects of Lagos were devasting indeed. While the Scarlett Witch was able to contain an explosion for the most part, she lost control and destroyed nearby property which in result killed many people, including relief aid workers from Wakanda. Hopefully, our heroes will take a stand and show the accountability that many people wish to see in them._

_“If some of the heroes refuse to sign the accords, it will be seen as an act of resignation. We hope not to see any of them go, but for responsibility to be shown as part of their characters.”_

On the screen, the two newscast members talked to the audience and to each other. Peter stared, head tilted as he watched a video of Lagos pop up. The destruction was big, construction debris flung everywhere. He saw the Scarlett Witch, with her red energy flowing around her hands. He saw Captain America and Falcon, standing unsure next to her. Black Widow was no where to be seen. As far as Peter was aware, Iron Man and Thor weren’t a part of this mission.

The thought of accountability reminds Peter of how Iron Man, Tony Stark, took care and responsibility for what he thought was wrong in 2008, when he first became Iron Man. From what the news told the public, Tony had been kidnapped and during his time in captivity, he had saw that his own weapons were being used by the enemy. When he got back, he tried to immediately shut down his manufacture of weapons. Behind the scenes, the public was unaware that he had been building a better version of the suit that helped him escape from captivity. That suit helped Tony to go back to where he was captured and destroy the weapons that were being used there, as well as help some people that were being held captive. In the end, he found out who was trading under the table and he _took care of it_.

Peter looked at Tony Stark as an idol. He was a superhero but not from any powers, but from his mind and his technology. Peter’s thoughts stopped, and he looked down at his hands. _Powers_. No, Peter shouldn’t.

But if he had these powers and someone got hurt because he didn’t use them to help, then…the bad things happen because of him. Peter stared at his hands before tightening them and staring determinedly at the ground. He was going to do it. He was going to use his powers for the greater good and help people.

He would need an alias first. Peter thought of what bit him and grinned, laughing in his head. _Spider…Spider-man. Unoriginal, common, but that’s where he got his powers from._ But spiders had webs, which he didn’t. So, Peter would need to make some of his own.

Creating his own type of web fluid was no easy feat. Peter had spent two weeks now on mixing different chemical so different amounts together, trying to create a texture similar to spider webs. He had gathered a bit of actual spider webs and analyzed them underneath of a microscope, looking at the exact detail and structure of the web. Considering that the webs were silk but were very strong, he would need something strong to replicate the chemical identity of the spider webs.

Finally, after spending extra hours in his chemistry lab after school (with the permission of his teacher, who trusted Peter to stay there by himself after hours), Peter finally had come up with something. If he allowed 1,6-Hexanediamine and Sebacoyl Chloride to touch, a long polymer chain would form, which would be nylon. But if he had added cellulose to both of those chemicals before the touched, it would create an even stronger long polymer chain that would be stiff and strong while remained tacky to be able to stick to surfaces. The only problem he had now was that he was going to have to build a web shooter that had two different compartments, one for the 1,6-Hexanediamine with cellulose and one for the Sebacoyl Chloride with cellulose. He couldn’t allow the two chemicals to touch immediately, so create two compartments that would simultaneously release their chemicals at the same time to create the strong nylon string and release into the air seemed to be the only way to go about it. He added a dissolving agent that would activate after two hours which would turn the web into a dusty powder.

Peter went home and asked his parents if he could buy some stuff for chemistry experimentation purposes. They knew that he liked chemistry and enjoyed messing around with it, so it was no problem for them to hand Peter their card and gave him a limit of fifty dollars to buy whatever he needed.

It was surprisingly easy for Peter to buy the three different chemicals in big quantities from Amazon. That was all he really needed besides gloves for sanitary purposes. And while he waited on his chemicals to get to his house, he started to indulge in a new activity; dumpster diving. It wasn’t for food but for technology purposes. He used the different parts from thrown out technology to make his web shooters and his web cartridges, since he needed to have extra just encase.

Peter now had his web fluid, his web shooters and cartridges, his alias. He needed a costume. And Peter was no sewing genius. So, he had to use the small knowledge that he had about sewing to put together a red sweatshirt, which he cut off the sleeves, and used the sleeves of a blue shirt to create the top of his outfit. He then put on a normal pair of blue sweatpants, wore long red socks that were pulled over his sweatpants and red shoes. This…was his outfit. It wasn’t great, but it’d have to do. His mask that he created with basically a long, tight, red beanie that he cut holes in for the eyes. His goggles were black and had black lenses to dull out the oversensitivity of his eyes. They were just superglued to the beanie and the eyes were over the holes in the mask.

The first time Peter put on his outfit with the mask on, the web shooters in place with his cartridges attached to his waist, Peter was overcome with emotion. It was disbelief and wonder and pride all mixed into one. He couldn’t believe that he was actually going to be a superhero, he wondered what it was going to be like, and he was proud of himself for coming this far and not giving up during the hard trials of figuring out his persona. 

* * *

 

Two months of fighting crime outside of school hours and staying on top of his grades while making sure his foster family doesn’t figure out that he’s doing something incredibly dangerous for his age was tasking. Peter didn’t go to crime outside of Queens, sticking to his hometown to protect those who needed protection. He felt a sense of need to his home, wanted to protect it first before anything else. There was a lot of simple muggings, a lot of cats to save from trees, and a lot of people to save.

His web fluid worked great to swing from building to building, which was terrifying the first time he attempted this, but also worked as a great weapon. It could restrict people and their movements, as well as pull people towards him and push them away from him. Coming into his powers and figuring out how to utilize them was a journey.

There was a few instances where he thought he might have been over his head. One time, he stopped a gas station from being robbed but almost got shot while trying to help. The bullet went flying past his abdomen, Peter was only able to dodge it because his spider sense, as he had coined it, warned him. There was a time when Peter was attempting to stop a car from colliding with a building. His web fluid had worked but he hadn’t encountered for the momentum of the car to harm him, so his one of his shoulders were pulled out of place while he tugged on the car. He was able to pop it back into place with little difficulty, but it still hurt like a bitch.

That’s another thing Peter had noticed; he had enhanced healing abilities. If he got a bruise or a cut, it normally would go away with a few hours with no scarring. Broken bones took anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the severity. Concussions were gone within a day. Pain from aches were gone with an hour.

And Peter had been so careful, he didn’t feel like anything was going wrong. No one asked any questions, he wasn’t being scrutinized, school was going by normally and his home life was still going smoothly. He still had plenty of his chemicals left from two months, barely making a dent in them. Everything was fine.

That’s why when he got home one day from school, he was shocked to see that Tony Stark was sitting on his foster couch with his foster mom. Peter didn’t notice him at first, walking inside and off to the kitchen, greeting Samantha as he tugged off his backpack.

“How was school today?”

“It was okay. You know, there’s this crazy car parked outside…” His words trailed off, mentioned what he saw outside before his eyes widened and his jaw slightly dropped as he saw the person sitting beside of his foster mom. Tony Stark.

“Hello, Mr. Parker.” Tony Stark said, flipping the cracker in his hand back of forth. Samantha tilted her head at him and grinned.

“Um. Wha-what are you doing?” Peter started off, grinning with a breathless tone to his voice before changing what he was saying. “Hey, I’m-I’m-I’m Peter.” He said, throwing a hand out lightly before bringing it back to himself.

“Tony.”

“What are you, what are you doing here?” Peter asked, his idol sitting in front him making him stutter and lose track of thought. Peter felt slightly frozen because he’s pretty sure that he hasn’t done anything to require Tony Stark’s attention.

“Bout time we met. You’ve been getting my emails, right?” Tony Stark winked at him with his right eye then his left. Peter thought about it and he hadn’t been getting any emails, but he decided to go with it nonetheless.

“Uh, yeah. Y-yeah, regarding the…” Peter’s unsure voice trailed off at Samantha intercepted.

“You didn’t tell me about the grant?

“About the grant.” Peter finished uselessly.

“The September Foundation.” Tony said helpfully.

“Yeah.”

“Remember when you applied?”

“…Yeah.” Peter said, completely sure that he hadn’t applied for any grant. Samantha was cheered voicelessly next to him, tossing her hands up in enthusiasm.

“I approve. So now, we’re in business.” Tony said, picking up a floral cup to drink out of. He made a face at Peter that said, ‘ _go with it or else_ ’.

“I can’t believe this, this is such good news. I’m sure that you just kept it from us because you were unsure if you were gonna get the grant, Peter, but I am so proud of you.” Samantha said as Peter stared at Tony.

“Y-yeah, I also just wanted to surprise everyone with the news…Anyways, what did I apply for?” Peter said, throwing the question at Tony.

“That’s what I’m here to hash out.”

“O-okay, hash it out.”

“It’s…so hard for me to believe that she is a foster mom of four kids. Like, wow.” Tony said, gesturing to Samantha. Samantha blushed and nodded her head in thanks.

Before Tony could even continue with his conversation with Samantha, Peter interrupted.

“So, does the grant have like, money or something involved?”

“Hmm. Yeah, it’s pretty well funded. Well, look who you’re talking to.”

“Wow.” Peter said, still really unsure of what was happening.

“Can I have five minutes alone with him?” He asked Samantha.

“Yeah, sure, no problem. Take as long as you need.” Tony thanked Samantha, standing up and walking towards Peter. He clasped his shoulder and walked him down the hallway, where Peter than led the two of them upstairs and into Peter’s bedroom. His suit was tucked away in the attic in his ceiling, so he wasn’t worried that something was out in the open.

Tony came in after him and quietly shut and locked the door. He walked toward Peter’s desks and looked at the stuff crowding it. “Oh, what do we have here? Retro-tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?”

“Uh, the garbage actually.”

Tony looked unamused. “You’re a dumpster diver.”

“Yeah, I…Anyways, I definitely did not apply for your grant.”

Tony cut him off. “Ah, ah! Me first.” He reached into his pocket to pull out of his phone.

“Okay.” Peter said, waiting for what he had to say. Tony’s phone start to project a video of Spider-man. Peter felt his blood freeze at Tony’s next words.

“Quick question of the rhetorical variety. That’s you, right?”

“Um, no. What do you- what do you mean?”

Tony hummed. “Yeah, look at you go. Wow!” Tony commented watching the video. “Nice catch, 3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour. That’s not easy. You got made skills.”

Peter hurried to cover his tracks. “That’s all on YouTube, though, right? I mean, that’s where you found that? Because you know that’s all fake. It’s all done on the computer.”

Tony hummed.

“It’s like that video. What is it?” Peter stumbled, trying to make it make sense.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?”

Peter made a noncommittal noise. “Exactly.” He heard a creak and then, “Oh, what do we have here?” Peter turned around in a flash and saw his suit flying down from the attic. He leapt forward and grabbed it, tossing it into the closet. “Uh, that’s a…”

Tony looked at him, dead faced. “So. You’re the…Spider…ling. Crime-fighting Spider…You’re Spider-Boy?”

Peter cringed inside and crossed his arms slowly and looked away from Tony to stare at the wall. “It’s S…Spider-Man.”

“Not in that onesie, you’re not.”

“It’s not a onesie.” Peter groaned and walked back over to his desk. “I don’t believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, you know, Mr. Stark. Woke up on time for school, there was this perfectly good DVD player just sitting there and my Algebra test. Nailed it!”

Tony disregarded his words. “Who else knows? Anybody?”

“Nobody.”

“Not even your family?”

“No. No, no, no, no, no. If they knew, they would freak out. And when they freak out, I freak out.”

Tony moved on. “You know what I think is really cool. This webbing.” Tony threw his web cartridge at him and he barely thought about it catch it. “That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?”

“I did.” Tony’s eyebrows raised in silent appreciation.

“Climbing the wall, how you doing that? Cohesive gloves?” Tony asked, fiddling with his suit.

Peter laughed without humor. “It’s a long story. I was uh…”

Tony interrupted him. “Lordy! Can you even see in these?”

Peter grabbed the suit from him and tossed it in his closet. “Yes, yes, I can see in those. Okay? It’s just that…” Peter sighed and leaned against his door. “When whatever happened – happened, it’s like my senses have been dialed to eleven. There’s way too much input, so they kind of help me focus.”

Tony made a face at him. “You’re in _dire_ need of an update. Systemic, top to bottom. 100-point restoration. That’s why I’m here.”

Peter walked over and sat on his bed, looking at Tony expectedly. Tony hummed and looked at him, cocking his head.

“Why you doing this? Come on, I got to know. What’s your MO? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning?”

Peter looked down and fiddles with his fingers. “Because…Because I’ve been me my whole life, and I’ve had these powers for two months.” Tony hummed, not interrupting Peter as he talked.

“I read books, I build computers, and I would love to play football. But I couldn’t then so I shouldn’t now.”

Tony hummed in agreement. “Sure, because you’re different.”

“Exactly. But I can’t tell anybody that, so I’m not. And when you can do the things that I can, but you don’t…” Peter trailed off. Tony leaned forward, intrigued. “…and then the bad things happen…they happen because of you.”

Tony actually looked moved. Peter just looked at him for a minute.

“So.” Tony started. “You wanna look out for the little guy. You wanna do your part? Make the world a better place, all that, right?”

“Yeah, just, looking out for the little guy. That’s what it is.” Peter watched as Tony got up. Tony walked over to him and looked at Peter’s leg that was stretched out on the bed. “I’m gonna sit here, so you move the leg.” Peter moved his leg and Tony sat beside him. Tony hesitantly raised his hand and clasped Peter’s shoulder. “You got a passport?”

Peter furrowed his eyebrows, surprised at the change in conversation. “Um. No. I don’t even have a driver’s license.”

“You ever been to Germany?” Tony asked, moving on.

“No.”

“Oh, you’ll love it.” Tony said.

“I can’t go to Germany!” He exclaimed, shocked at where this conversation was leading.

“Why?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. Peter fumbled for an answer.

“I got…homework” He said with a hesitant voice.

Tony looked at him with tired eyes. “I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that.” Tony lightly rolled his eyes and stood up.

“I’m-I’m being serious! I can’t just drop out of school!” He said, looking at Tony started to walk to the door.

“Might be a little dangerous. Better tell your family that I’m taking you on a field trip.” Peter didn’t even think about, using the web shooters that he carried on him at all times. He webbed Tony’s hand to the door. Tony looked back at him.

“Don’t tell them.” Tony and Peter stared at each other before Tony conceded.

“Alright, Spider-Man.” Another pause before Tony threw his head in the direction of his hand. “Get me out of this.” Peter startled and moved to his desk. “Sorry, I’ll get the dissolvent.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so tony and peter finally met, yay! i used dialogue straight from civil war but i'm probably gonna start branching from the dialogue a bit, just to put a bit of my own originality in it.  
> someone asked me to not do civil war but i couldn't ignore the plot when it has such a big impact on the avengers and is technically how peter is brought into the mcu. i want most of this timeline to be canon but with some diverging parts.  
> i'm not sure if i will do same ending of infinity war or not, i'm still deciding on that.  
> let me know what you thought.  
> next chapter contains the civil war battle. hopefully by chapter five, peter will start to dig  
> timeline for this chapter:  
> March 2016 – Creates tacky outfit to portray himself as Spider-Man, creates persona as Spider-Man  
> June 2016 – Gets recruited by Tony Stark to help fight against Rogue Avengers


	4. DNA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter threw his head back and groaned, rubbing at his eyes. What in the world was he going to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long to update, i ended up getting drunk at a party and then got sick for two days afterwards and just haven't had motivation to write

Fighting against Captain America, Falcon, and the dude with the metal air was something that Peter never envisioned. But Tony said that he needed help to reel in the Rogue Avengers, so he lent a hand. He stole Captain America’s shield, he webbed up the other two guys, tied up a giant man but also got smacked out of the air by said giant man.

In the end, Peter got benched by Tony and went back to the hotel with Happy. Also, the new suit was sweet. Complete with Stark technology, it was a thousand times better than what Peter’s old suit was. It wasn’t a fair fight against what suit he preferred whatsoever. Complete cloth versus Stark technology. It was a no brainer.

By the time that Peter and Happy arrived back in the States, Tony was there waiting for them. He greeted the pair with a grim yet media worthy smile, clasping Happy on the shoulder. They walked over to the car that was waiting and popped in with Happy in the front and the other two in the back.

“You did good, kid.” Was all Tony said about the fight that went down. Peter had so many questions. What was going to happen to the Rogue’s now? Who was that giant man? Is Colonel Rhodes okay? Peter had saw him go down before he left the hanger and he didn’t seem to be moving.

He didn’t ask any of these though.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.” Peter said, grinning slightly at the man before looking back out the window.

“Now, look, kid. I don’t mind that you got this spider business going on. I’m not your babysitter though. I’m not going to watch you and take care of you. Just, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and definitely don’t do anything I would do. There’s a small gray area.” Tony gestured with his hands, putting a tiny bit of space in between in thumb and index finger. “And that’s where you operate, capiche?”

“I-I capiche.” Peter said, stumbling over his words as he took in what he was saying.

“Stay on the ground. Help the little guy. And if we need you, we’ll call you.”

“…Did you get my phone number?”

“Someone will call you. Probably him.” Tony said, pointing at Happy, who was getting out of the car to grab the case with Peter’s suit in it. Tony leaned over and Peter couldn’t help but to put a hand behind Tony and lightly land it on his back.

“That’s not a hug, I’m just getting the door for you…We’re not there yet.” Tony said, leaning back once he opened the door. Peter scrambled to get out, face blushing profusely. “Bye.”

Peter barely had time to wave before Happy shut the door and got back in the driver’s seat, taking off. Peter stared after the car. That weekend had been crazy. He grabbed the case and tugged it inside of the house, unlocking the door with his keys. It was the middle of the day and no one was home right now. Shaking his head, he dragged in the case and his backpack and went straight to his room after locked the door.

Help the little guy. Looking resolutely at the case, Peter gathered his courage and went to change into the suit, getting ready to help those in needs.

* * *

 

Three months later, Peter’s persona was known throughout the city. Some people thought of him as a menace and some people thought of him as hero. He was okay with it though, because he was helping people. But what was bothering him right now wasn’t the work and crime he was dealing with; it was the fact that he had a nagging feeling in the bottom of his stomach whenever he thought about his parents.

He had recently found some photographs of his parents. The photos were gave to him by the agents who cleaned out his old apartment. They were given to Peter months ago, but Peter was just now working through the boxes. Stumbling upon the photos, he sat down beside the box and splayed the photos out in front of him. He looked between each photo. Some contained May, some contained Ben, and some contained his parents. There was very rarely photos of them though. Only seldomly did Peter find a photo where his parents were featured together and with him.

Looking at the clearest photo of his parents though, Peter cocked his head with his eyebrows raised. Now, he knew that brown hair and brown eyes were dominant genes. If a pair of genes had one dominant gene, it would display a dominant trait. To display a recessive trait, both genes in a pair had to be recessive.

His parents were both spotting two recessive traits. His mother had blonde hair and blue eyes. His father looked to have red hair and blue eyes. His both of his parents had blue eyes, then Peter should have had blue eyes too. Two recessive traits from his parents would mean that Peter himself would get that recessive trait. But Peter had brown eyes. Blonde hair was one type of recessive trait and red hair was another type of recessive trait. If those two traits mixed together, Peter should’ve ended up with blonde or red hair or mixed. Peter sat there with his head cocked.

This didn’t make any sense. Based on what was going through his head, Peter wasn’t exactly sure if his parents were actually his parents biologically. Lifting a hand to his mouth, Peter chewed on his nails, thinking about what he should do. None of his original family was around, there was no one to ask.

Walking over to his desk, he sat down heavily and sighed. He looked back at the photos before gritting his teeth and turning on his computer. He wanted, no, needed to find out who he was. Was he really Peter Parker? Or was he someone else?

Peter went onto the web, pausing before he did anything. He scratched his chin, leaning back. Where would he need to start to try to get to his past?

Peter thought heavily for a moment. If he wanted to go back, he needed to try to retrace his origin. He typed in the name of the place he was told that he was born at, going to their website. He looked at the information page and the title page, quickly losing interest. Clicking on a tab that said for employees, Peter was brought to a login page. Clicking his tongue, he looked away from his computer to pull out his phone to shoot Ned a text.

_From: petie of pie_

_To: the guy with a plan_

_hey dude, wassup_

_From: the guy with a plan_

_To: petie of pie_

_thinking about heading to bed early. hbu?_

_From: petie of pie_

_To: the guy with a plan_

_trying to figure something out…wanna come over and help? i need support ):_

_From: the guy with a plan_

_To: petie of pie_

_lemme ask my mom but i should be heading your way soon._

_From: petie of pie_

_To: the guy with a plan_

_you’re the absolute best bro uwu thank you_

_From: the guy with a plan_

_To: petie of pie_

_please never uwu at me again or i’ll break your finger (((((:_

_From: petie of pie_

_To: the guy with a plan_

_violent, gotcha. see you soon_

Tossing his phone behind him, Peter sighed and scratched the top of his head. He hated doubting where he came from but, he hated being in the unknown more. As he waited for Ned to make his way over, he double checked his room that he hadn’t left any of his web shooters or web cartridges anywhere. He made his way downstairs, patting Christopher on the head as he passed. He walked into the living room and sat on the couch, staring at the TV.

“Ned was gonna come over soon, is that alright?” He asked, throwing a glance at Robert who was grading papers next to him. Robert was a teacher for fifth grade and had a class of 30 students to deal with. Robert looked up from his papers, glancing at Peter over his glasses.

“Have you finished your homework?”

Peter hummed, crossing his legs as he leaned back.

“You have nothing else you need to focus on or worry about?”

“Nope, I finished my projects for class earlier this week and my homework for chemistry was finished before class even let out today.”

Robert hummed, scratching his pen on the paper in front of him. “Then, I guess it’ll be fine.” Robert said with a teasing tilt to his voice.

Peter grinned. “Thanks, Robert.” Robert hummed and focused his attention back on his papers. Peter sat there for the next fifteen minutes watching a television show that he didn’t know about before a car horn sounded out front. Peter jumped up and went to the door, opening it gingerly. He saw Ned walking up his path to his door and Peter waved, grinning at the site of his best friend. Ned walked in the door and patted Peter’s shoulder.

“Hi Mr. Brown.”

“Hello Ned.”

“We’re gonna head upstairs, Robert. Yell if you need us.” Robert nodded and waved them off. The two boys headed upstairs and into Peter’s room.

“So, what’d you need help with?” Ned started off, sitting on Peter’s bed. Peter walked over to the photos that were still sitting on the floor. He grabbed the clearest one of his parents and handed it to Ned. Ned stared at it before looking at Peter with a confused expression.

“That’s my parents.” Peter offered, watching as Ned looked at it again.

“Okay, and?”

“They have blue eyes, blonde hair, and red hair. I have brown hair and brown eyes.” He said, watching as Ned took in that information. It took a minute before his facial expression changed into epiphany.

“Ohhh.”

“Yeah.”

“You think they’re not your biological parents?”

“I mean, I’m looking at the facts. A recessive trait and a recessive trait don’t make a dominant trait. Two wrong’s don’t make a right.” He said. Ned’s face turned to confusion again. “That didn’t make sense, I know. But the main fact is that I shouldn’t have ended up with brown eyes if both of my parents had blue eyes.”

Ned slowly nodded. “I think you’re right, man.”

“I have a plan.”

“Am I involved, is that why you brought me over here?”

“Well, I did need support, but I also needed help.” Peter admitted sheepishly. Ned rolled his eyes and waved for Peter to continue.

“So, I found the website of the hospital I was born in. I also found a website for employee login. I’m sure that they have some records online of birth certificates or something. I just need to know, man. I can’t be left in the dark about who I am.” Peter said, looking at his wall.

He barely finished talking before Ned walked over to his desk and sat down, looking at the login page that was pulled up.

“Luckily, your best friend is great with technology and can hack his way around simple security walls. Just give me a few moments.” Peter nodded and thanked Ned, sitting on his bed as he watched Ned work his magic. Ned had many black coded screens pulled up that were filled with lines of programming. Peter wasn’t the best with hacking, so he assumed that Ned was trying to find a password and a username for someone that had a high access.

Peter looked away from Ned, looking out his window as he waited. He really didn’t want to find out if he had been given up for adoption. He didn’t want to question his entire childhood. But Peter needed to find out or else he was just gonna have the question of ‘what if’ always inside of his mind.

“Gotcha.” He heard Ned whisper, looking back over to watch Ned input something into the username and password. He clicked login and then suddenly they were shown a page with a bunch of tabs and file locations.

“Woah. I think this is super duper illegal.” Ned said. Not only because they were hacking but they were hacking into a medical facility. If they got caught for this, they’d be in major trouble.

“We’ll just need to cover our tracks, delete this entry of login from the system.” Ned nodded with Peter’s words, getting up to allow Peter to sit down. “You have ten minutes before I need to delete our time of login.” Peter nodded and got to work.

He first had to find the file of 2001 births. Once he found that file, he had to locate the month of August. Then he had to go to the 10th day. It was on the fourth sub-file of 2001 births. There was so many children born at this hospital in that year that it took a moment to find the file. When Peter say his name, just his first and middle name, among the births, he chest froze with an unknown emotion. Was he ready to find out if he wasn’t really a Parker? He would never be ready, but he needed to find out.

Clicking on the file, an image was brought to the screen. It was his birth certificate with a first name but there was no middle or last name on the certificate. There was no signature from a mother or a father. It had his birth date and time of birth, his weight and height and the location of where he was born but no parent signatures. Peter sat frozen for a second in disbelief before saving the image to his computer under a file named _unknown_. He clicked out of the image on the website and went back to the main page before getting up to allow Ned to delete the entry of login.

It didn’t take long for Ned to cover their tracks. Within a few moments, it was like they were never on the site. The website was closed, and the pair just sat in silence. Ned spoke first.

“Bro, I’m sorry, this has to suck for you.”

Peter didn’t say anything, just nodded his head as he dragged his fingers through his hair.

“I found out that I wasn’t a Parker, but I also didn’t find who birthed me. There was no names on the paper. I am no closer to figuring out who I am.”

“You’re still Peter.” Ned said, cutting Peter off. Peter stared at Ned.

“Just because you have different biological parents, it doesn’t make you any less. You’re still you. You’re still Peter. Your DNA doesn’t change who you are.”

Peter nodded gratefully, allowing himself to understand and fully grasp those words, holding onto them dearly. He needed to hear that. He needed to hear that he wasn’t a stranger in clothes because his chemical makeup had been found to be different.

“Hey, I’m here with you. If you wanna dive deeper, I’m here to help.” Ned offered, throwing a smile at Peter. Peter grinned and brought Ned in for a hug.

“Thanks for being here, man.” Ned muttered a _no problem_ as he hugged Peter back.

“Should I submit a DNA test first? And then maybe we can start looking into adoption agencies while we wait for it to come back?” Peter offered uselessly, fiddling with his hands.

“That sounds like a good idea. How are you gonna be able to do the DNA test?”

“There’s a site that does a comprehensive test of your DNA, telling you about who you’re related to if they’ve used the site and more about your chemical makeup structure.” Peter said, already having looked into the sites. “It costs almost a hundred dollars, but I have money saved up that I’d be willing to be used on this. This is so important to me, I’d spend so much money on it.”

Ned nodded. “I have no doubt, man. I would be the same. Do you wanna go ahead and buy the kit now?”

Peter nodded, walking over to his desk and bringing up the site. He sent the kit to the shopping cart and bought it with his debit card, where his money was stored on. He let out a puff of air after he bought it. Ned rubbed Peter’s shoulder and Peter felt the comfort flow into his body.

There was a yell that came from downstairs, announcing that dinner was done. Peter and Ned walked out of Peter’s room, listening as Ned talked to him about the new Lego set he had gotten a few days ago. Although he was listening to Ned, his mind was a million miles away as he thought about the DNA test that he had just ordered. He knew that the test would take about a week to get to his house and be sent back, two weeks to analyze the samples that Peter would be sending them, then another week to get the results back in the mail. So, it would take about a month to know more about who he possibly was, biologically. That gave Peter and Ned a month to try to find out if he happened to have been given to any adoption agencies in New York. Peter would just look at Queens adoption centers but, he wanted to be thorough.

It was actually two weeks later when Peter and Ned started looking into adoption agency centers. Peter had received the kit a week earlier and had already sent back his saliva samples, which he swabbed with a cotton swab. Peter was already shaking from the nervous energy that was being built up in his body.

Ned had come over to Peter’s once again, having brought his own laptop this time. To be safe, Ned actually was using a VPN secure sever, so their IP address wasn’t showing their true exact location. Ned would be going incognito but, he wanted to be sure that nothing could be traced back to them.

And Ned, he had actually thought about this beforehand and had created a tool that would simultaneously hack into ten websites, at maximum, to help find keywords of information that the user wanted to find. It would help to reduce time and effort. There was around 130 possible adoption agencies in New York alone that were online, so they only had to run this program about thirteen times. Each time takes about a day to comprehensively go through the websites and delve into the cracks in the mainframe. Afterwards, information that matched the keywords that were being looked for would be transmitted back to the users. Things like the website, the location of the place, the file containing the key words, that type of information would be given to the user.

Peter had been in awe when Ned explained the program to him. It was astounding. Ned could get a _fortune_ off of this program if he sold it to any willing buyer but Ned, he had blushed and proclaimed that he didn’t want to sell it to anyone since he only made the program to help out his friend.

Peter, overcome with emotion, had hugged Ned tightly and thanked him for helping him out. Sometimes, it’s hard to find a friend that will be there for you through thick and thin, no matter what it is. Peter really did cherish Ned. That night, they put the first ten websites in, hit ‘enter’, and let the program do it’s magic. They didn’t stare at the computer, knowing that it would take some time to get feedback.

After the first couple of days, the pair was continuously let down with the feedback. They hadn’t received or gotten notified that any site had any information about Peter. It was the eighth day of using the program whenever they finally got some feedback. It was the 76th website that had entered that came back with information matching Peters.

The results came from an adoption agency in Manhattan. The agency was called Alliances for Children. Peter had stared at the results nervously, looking at the file that was named ‘August 10th \- Peter’.  Ned had gone ahead and sent the file to him through a secure email. And Peter would have already opened it but, he wanted his friend to be there with him whenever he opened it, for moral support. Peter tapped his fingers nervously against the desk.

He could hear the distracting noise of the clock that was hanging on the wall; it was ringing in his ear’s and pounding on the inside of his skull. Distantly, he could hear the skid of tires from a bicycle on the sidewalk and the sound of an engine running. Peter closed his eyes and tightly fisted his jeans. He focused on the humming of his computer and the sound of his fingers tapping on the desk, trying to distract himself from the other aimless sounds that were impeding his thoughts and focus.

He was focusing so hard that he didn’t even notice that Ned had entered his house until the nagging sense in the back of his skull flared up. He lifted his head just as Ned entered his room. Ned offered him a little smile and Peter smiled back even though it felt like a grimace. Ned came to stand behind Peter.

“You ready?” Ned asked Peter.

“Nope. Let’s do this.” Peter said, heart beating out of his chest. He already knew that his biological parents were different because of this, because he found records of himself in an adoption agency. He just wanted to know who his biological parents was.

Ned patted Peter’s shoulder as Peter steadied his breathing. He clicked on the file, waiting as it loaded. The contents, in plain and simple font, was splayed out on the desktop.

_Birth Name: Peter (no middle name, last name withheld)_

_Date of Birth: August 10 th, 2001_

_Time of Birth: 19:54 or 07:54 PM_

_Location of Birth: Manhattan Hill Hospital_

_Biological Mother: INFORMATION CONCEALED FOR PRIVACY PURPOSES_

_Biological Father: INFORMATION CONCEALED FOR PRIVACY PURPOSES_

_Adopted Name: Peter Benjamin Parker_

_Adoptee’s Father: Richard B. Parker_

_Adoptee’s Mother: Mary G. F. Parker_

_Date of Adoption: August 22 nd, 2001_

That was all the information that was given to Peter. He quickly sent the file details to his saved file ‘ _unknown’_ on his computer, seeing through his blurry vision. He knew that he had a good chance of not being his parent’s biological child but it’s another thing to realize that your thoughts were right.

The most frustrating part about this was the fact that the file didn’t even bother to tell him who his biological parents were, which was the reason that he had gone through the trouble of digging into his DNA. Peter felt a tear stream down his face and he quickly wiped it away. How was he going to go about finding out his past now? The information about his biological parents were concealed.

“Do you think that the agency itself would have the records of my adoption? Do you think they would have just not put the information online due to the privacy concerns?” Peter asked Ned, reaching for an answer.

“I mean, maybe? It’s worth checking out, if anything. Because we’re not going to be able to do a maternity test or a paternity test unless we have two individuals that you can check your DNA with.” Ned responded. Peter flashed his eyes up to the ceiling.

“Do you think we would have time to do it today?” It was Friday, about two o’clock in the afternoon. School wasn’t in session yet, it started in about a week. Ned thought about it for a minute before nodding hesitantly.

“Do you want me to call my mom and see if she can take us? We could just tell her that we want to go to a mall nearby or something and walk the rest of the way.” Peter nodded, and Ned fished out his phone, walking into the hallway to make a call. Peter, still dumbfounded by the information that was revealed, walking over to the box that had once held photographs of his adopted family. He looked inside the box and, on a whim, started digging past picture frames and family items. Nothing was at the bottom of that box, but he moved onto the next box. He had three boxes total from his old apartment that he had gotten from the social workers.

The second box held sweatshirts that Peter had left, along with games and jackets that belonged to Ben and a few different books. In the last box, there was more picture frames. Peter scratched his head, not really knowing what he was looking for, but something was bothering him. Peter looked at the picture frames again, focusing on one frame that seemed to be a bit too thick for the picture it held. It had double the thickness of the other frames.

Peter drew the frame out and started taking the back off. Unexpectedly, a group of papers that were clipped together fell out of the back and onto the floor. Peter stood, blinking randomly, before he picked up the papers. He read the first sentence of the first page.

_Experimentation on Mutating Human DNA – Trial 1, Subject: Peter Parker_

Peter grasped the paper tighter, eyes growing wide as he read the information. The experiment had six different trials and they were all on him, Peter Parker; the trials were also marked with the seal of Oscorp. Peter gulped heavily, feeling an odd sensation settle in the bottom of his stomach as he recalled his last visit to Oscorp.

_“Parker? You wouldn’t happen to be the son of Richard and Mary Parker, would you?” Peter stared through narrow eyes at the man, wondering how he knew his parents’ names when he barely knew them himself. Peter nodded, despite wanting to not answer._

_“Your parents used to work here. They were some of our greatest geneticists and experiment analysts. Are you going to be following in your parents footsteps?” Norman asked, very interested in Peter’s life._

Peter narrowed his eyes as his head spun. Norman Osborn had known about what his parents had done and approved it? His adopted father had done experiments on him? To mutate his DNA. According to the sixth trial, Peter had been injected with a drug that was a combination of different chemicals that would react in different ways to his DNA to help it mutate to any animal that was venomous or poisonous. Apparently, the drug had been fused with a reactant agent that bonded with his DNA that opened his receptors to accept another DNA for mutation, specifically DNA that had venomous or poisonous qualities.

Perhaps that was why Peter’s DNA bonded and mutated after the spider bite him. It had accepted the venom that had been input his arm and instead, mutated his entire DNA to hold qualities of that spider.

Peter felt like throwing up. The only reason why he was Spider-Man was because his adopted father has been a douche bag and experimented on Peter as a child.

But that wasn’t the only thing that within the group of papers. There was also a paper that was titled, ‘ _SSS’_. Within that document, there was a seal stamped on the bottom right corner of the paper that had the words, ‘ _Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division_ ’. Peter looked at the beginning of the words before snorting. _Should’ve named it SHIELD._

The paper consisted of a formula that was very complex. Peter had no idea what he was looking at until he read the bottom line of the paper, ‘ _…this formula is a replacement for the serum that was used on Captain America, but stronger._ ’

Peter choked on his breath. He was holding the formula for the super solider serum?  Without even thinking about anything, he flipped to the next page. It was the copy of a birth certificate. His real, actual birth certificate with names filled in.

_Name: Peter (no middle, no last name)_

_Mother: Maya Elizabeth Hansen_

_Father: Anthony Edward Stark_

_Date: August 10 th, 2001_

_Time: 07:54 PM_

_Weight: 5 pounds 6 ounces_

_Height: 20 inches_

_Location: Manhattan, New York_

Peter nodded, through watery eyes, that the father’s signature was never signed, only the mother’s was. The father’s name was printed in the space, which signified that the father hadn’t been there for the birth. Peter choked out a laugh, still not processing anything. In the short span of five minutes, he had found out his adopted father had experimented with the approval of Norman Oscorp, his parents had recreated the super soldier serum, and his father was _the_ Tony Stark. Peter had no idea who Maya Hansen was but, he rubbed his thumb over name lightly.

Peter tugged his birth certificate out from the grouped pile of papers, sitting it on his bed. He looked at the last page and sat down. It was a letter addressed to him. The page was crinkled and it was slightly yellow. The words on the page were cursive and in stark black ink and wrote out in elegant handwriting.

_Dear Peter,_

_I regret that I will never have the chance to raise you myself. My work and lifestyle is not suited for a child and I don’t wish to bring you up in it. I want you to have a chance to enjoy your childhood and be a child. I don’t even know if you’ll ever see this letter, you could live your life in ignorant bliss and never know that you have been given up for adoption._

_If you’re reading this, you know that you were given up for adoption. Please, never think that I don’t love you. You grew inside of me for eight months and I loved you every second. You decided that you didn’t want to wait any longer to come out so, you were born when I was 36 weeks along. That’s why you were so tiny and small when you were born._

_Your parents, Richard and Mary, they agreed to take you in for me. I wanted to hide you from people who wanted to use my work and ideas for any purpose they could, and I wished for you not to be a pawn in their game._

_Your father, Tony Stark…He is not the kind of man that I wish to bring up my child. He is irresponsible, irrational, and too much of a playboy. Don’t get me wrong, Peter, his mind is phenomenal, but he is not responsible enough to be a father. He never even knew I was pregnant, because our time together was simply a one-type of ordeal._ _Also, I don’t think it’d be wise for Tony to raise you either considering the amount of publicity he has. He has more enemies that anyone that I know and I don’t want you being a target for his stupidity._

_Your name would've been Peter Antonio Hansen, if I could've put the name I wanted you to have on the birth certificate but, I don't wish for you to ever be traced back to myself or Tony. Even though I don't believe Tony to be a good father figure, he is still your father and deserved to be a part of your formal name._

_Peter, I love you. Don’t ever think you were ever unwanted. You are loved much more than you know. You are my motivation for a better world, my purpose when things get blurry. You are my focus, my son. I love you._

_With love,_

_Maya Hansen – your mother_

Peter didn’t even realize that tears were streaming down his face until he saw the droplets at the bottom of the letter. He unclenched one of his hands from around the letter and wiped his hands against his face, staring at the letter. He wasn’t unwanted. His biological mother didn’t give him up because she didn’t want him but rather, she wanted him to be safe. And even though that didn’t happen, Peter still appreciates and understands the sentiment. If he had a child and there was a chance that they could be used against Peter and harmed in anyway, Peter would do the same.

Ned walked back in, talking at a million miles per hour. “My mom said that she can’t take us today but she said that she can take us tomorrow if we still want to go, is that alright? Peter? Are you okay?” Ned asked, noticing that Peter was sitting on the floor and had red rimmed eyes.

Peter handed him the letter and birth certificate, watching as his friends eyes widened.

“Oh…Oh my god. Peter! Oh my god!” Ned exclaimed, unable to find words, eyes widened and staring at Peter. Peter nodded his head, knowing exactly what his friend was thinking.

“I…I’m shocked that Tony Stark is my father, for sure.” He began slowly. “But I think I’m relieved and happy to know who my parents are. I’m relieved that I wasn’t given away because she didn’t want me.”

“Tony Stark doesn’t know that he’s your father, though. What are you going to do about that?” Ned asked, sitting the documents on Peter’s desk.

Peter thought hard for a second. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. On one hand, I could present him with my information but most of the information that I have is information that we essentially stole and wrongfully acquired. On the other hand, I could just let things play out as they would if I was in the dark still. I’m not really sure, Ned. I have no idea.”

Peter felt exhausted from the amount of information that was fed to him in the last ten minutes. Earlier that day, he had no idea who his birth parents were but now, he knew who he originated from. He also knew more than he wanted to. He knew that his adopted father had experimented on him, that his parents somehow had recreated super soldier serum, and that he was given away to be kept safe even if that plan did backfire.

Peter threw his head back and groaned, rubbing at his eyes. What in the world was he going to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so peter found out tony is his father  
> peter didn't really have that much of an emotional reaction to it in this chapter BUT OH BOI WAIT TIL NEXT CHApTER  
> also how would you like for tony to find out that peter is his son? is there any specific way that you would want him to find out?  
> timeline for this chapter: June 2016 – Gets recruited by Tony Stark to help fight against Rogue Avengers  
> August 2016 – Starts digging into past after not seeing similarities between dead parents and self; hacking into records of hospitals that he may have been born at, DNA tests – stumbles upon written records of human experimentation that were marked with the symbol of Oscorp, found notes to recreate the super soldier serum with the seal of SHEILD on it – figures out that Tony Stark is his father and Maya Hansen is his mother.


	5. It's a Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This wasn’t the reaction that Peter was expecting to be honest. He was expecting a snicker or a retort or a denial or refusal or snark. Anything but actual emotions. Because, this was Tony Stark, ya know? He was known for deflecting and snarking his ways around conversations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry this chapter took so long to write. been unmotivated and honestly, just didn't know where to take this chapter. i'm not the proudest of it, i wrote half of it when i was exhausted  
> the reason why peter's emotions are sometimes are all over the place is because, well, he's fourteen and is emotional. that's it, that's the reason.

Ned had left not soon after the huge bombshell was revealed. He had wanted to stay longer but Peter honestly needed some alone time to think about things. His head was spinning in fifty different directions. His palms were consistently sweating, and his mouth felt dry. He kept going back to the letter that was given to him from his _mother_ , rereading the words over and over again.

He knew that his foster family was starting to get a little worried. He had been holed up in his room since one o’clock that afternoon and it was nearing ten o’clock at night now. He hadn’t come out for food or social interaction. There had been a few knocks at the door, but Peter had only responded with, ‘I don’t feel too great right now, please leave me alone’.

Sitting at his desk, he stared at the birth certificate that was blank except for his name, the birth certificate that was completely filled out, the adoption forms that were found, and the letter. He had disregarded the information about his adopted father’s experimentation on himself and the super soldier serum for now. Staring at the names on his real birth certificate, Peter urged to find his mother. If anything, just for the sole reason of wanting to know if she was okay. _Maya Hansen_. It was a truly beautiful name, to Peter at least.

Peter gulped, emotions getting stuck in his throat as he stared at the document. He felt like he was in a stranger’s body right now. He knew deep in his heart that he was the same person, that he hadn’t changed any but finding out that your parentage is completely different than what you thought it was, it’s a little earth shattering. It felt like his entire world was falling apart around him but, no one noticed except for him. He couldn’t even share this secret with his foster family for the fear that would immediately cart him off back to the social services and share his secret with them so that he could be placed with his biological family, probably in the custody of Tony Stark himself.

Peter didn’t want that, he didn’t want to be an obligation that someone needed to take in. He wanted to be wanted. If he had to go back to any part of his biological family, he wanted to go to his mother. He knew from the letter that his mother had wanted him, that she didn’t want to give him away. Tony didn’t even know that he was Peter’s father.

Peter felt an unexplainable rage fill his veins. He was so angry and upset and confused and torn at this entire situation. He was angry that he had been technically lied to his entire life, he was upset that he had to be given away, he was confused about who he was as a person and torn about whether he should be happy to know that he had a living relative or sad that he had grieved over people that weren’t even related to him.

No, Peter wouldn’t think like that. Not about May and Ben. As far as Peter was aware, the pair had assumed Peter was actually the Parker’s biological child and took care of him like he was family. And Peter loved them like family. Peter couldn’t think ill of the two people who had cared for him the most in the world.

Peter gritted his teeth and stared through angry tears at his desk. It was blurry and unrecognizable through the watery filter. He fingers were clenching the edges of the desk too tightly, tight enough that his ears were able to pick up the sound of cracking wood. His fingertips came back dusted with shattered wood. Peter was able to see that his hands were almost vibrating, they were shaking so hard.

Why couldn’t Peter be normal? Not only was he an orphan, he was an adopted child, he had a mutated DNA and had a superhero persona, and his adopted parents created a super solider serum. It seems like any aspect of Peter’s life just was abnormal in some sort of way. His phone beeped, interrupting his thought process. He wiped his eyes and sniffled, picking up his phone from the floor which is where he had dropped it hours ago.

_From: happy_

_To: peter_

_Check-in time, kid._

That was a thing that had started after Peter had been dropped back off at his home after Germany. Tony had claimed that he wasn’t his babysitter and that he wasn’t going to keep an eye on him, yet he had his head of security doing it instead, making weekly check-in’s a thing. Peter grew more frustrated the more he thought of it. What right did Tony had to intercept himself into Peter’s life, give him an updated suit (even though Peter loved it), and then try to act as a mentor to the fifteen-year-old? He had no right. Tony just wanted to feel better about ‘enabling’ a kid with a suit that was equipped with Stark Technology.

Peter made an internal note to take apart the suit and fish out anything that could allow Tony Stark to find him or override his suit.

_From: peter_

_To: happy_

_All’s good. Nothing to report. Haven’t been out this week much._

Which wasn’t a lie. Peter hadn’t really been out much that week. That didn’t mean that he hadn’t stopped a robbery and helped a victim get their stolen car back. He didn’t need to tell Happy that though. He didn’t need to tell him anything. Peter felt the frustration almost choke him. He almost wished that Tony had never recruited him for the ‘civil war’ between himself and Captain America.

That just showed Peter that Tony still was irresponsible. He had brought Peter, a fourteen-year-old, to a battle between superheroes that were trying to maim each other. That just screamed irresponsible. Yes, Peter had agreed to go, and he hadn’t been made to go but Tony had shown up and asked for his help. Peter had felt flattered that Tony ‘needed’ him but, Peter knew that it was just because Tony felt underhanded.

There wasn’t a response from Happy but, Peter had expected that. Peter never got a response from Happy, but it was almost required that Peter needed to reply to Happy no matter what. Peter honestly just wanted a split from the connections that joined Tony Stark and himself together. If Tony cared about his well-being in any sort of way, he’d speak to Peter in person. 

Peter really wanted to break into the suit, but he couldn’t do that without worrying that he’d damage it. Well, then he’d just have to go back to his old suit, wouldn’t he? That way Tony Stark couldn’t track him and keep an eye on him without having to get close to Peter.

* * *

 

Going back to the old suit after adjusting to his new one was odd. Peter never liked down-grading in equipment, always preferred to be upgrading to newer and better things that he could manage. But despite his unease about wearing his old suit again, he still felt that ugly, dark ball of emotion rear it’s head at him whenever he looked at his new suit.

The new suit had laid over the back of a chair in his room for the last three weeks, untouched. His phone had 29 unread text message, five missed calls, and three voicemails from Happy. His ‘babysitter’ didn’t like that he wasn’t responding or keeping in contact and apparently had gotten in contact with his superior since Peter also had 3 unread text messages, one missed call, and a voicemail from Tony Stark himself. Peter entertained the thought of actually reading the texts and listening to the voicemails, but he couldn’t bring himself to torture himself, to listen to the voice of his father and to act like it was fine.

After having three weeks away to rip himself from the content of his existence, Peter was able to look at the situation with a clearer state of mind. It wasn’t being driven by his emotions and his instincts. His emotions at the time were of anger, disbelief, and agony. His instinct was to push away the change, the unknown, the variable that showed up out of nowhere.

But now, after examining the situation, Peter was just sad. He was just purely sad and wished that there was a different universe where he had been able to grow up with his father. He was sad for the childhood that he could’ve had, that was ripped away from him and he hadn’t even known it. He was sad for the hole that existed in Tony himself, the hole that he wasn’t even aware, the hole that only Peter could fit into.

And Peter wasn’t really sure about how he was supposed to go forward with this information. Should he tell Tony? Should he keep it a secret? Should he tell his foster family? Should he just ignore it and act like a mentee to Tony? Peter didn’t want to just be a mentee to Tony if Peter was going to be around the man, he wanted to be known for what he was.

Wiping his eyes, which had become misty, Peter was startled by a knock on his door. Peter’s head shot up and he stared at the door. Peter must have been so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the floorboards creak out in the hallway. Peter tilted his head. He had no idea who it could be.

“You gonna leave me hanging out here, kid?”

The one voice Peter was _not_ sure he wanted to hear.

“Uh. I-Uh-I’m busy ri-right now, Mr. Stark, sir.” Peter exclaimed lamely, unzipping his backpack and throwing his stuff inside around on his bed, messing it up to make it seem like he was doing something instead of wallowing.

“Uh-huh, and I’m the symbol of patriotism. Let me in.” Tony’s sarcastic voice reached his ears and Peter sighed, letting his shoulders droop. He really didn’t want to see him right now but Tony wasn’t going to accept no for an answer.

He walked over to his door and unlocked the door and opened it slightly to peer outside. He squinted and stared at Tony. The man was standing with his arms crossed outside his room, his signature glasses on his face. Tony was staring back and scrutinizing Peter as well.

“Are you going to let me in?”

“Sorry, it’s off bounds to anyone whose name isn’t Peter at the moment, come back later.” He snipped, barely holding the snark out of his voice. Peter wasn’t _ready_ to deal with him right now and wasn’t going to accept him into his safe place, the place with all the documents that showcased Tony as his father.

Tony raised an eyebrow, tilting his head down to look directly at Peter. “Do you want me to legally change my name to Peter for ten minutes, so I can enter your room? I can do it, I’m Tony Stark. It wouldn’t take but a minute for it to be legal.” Tony said, and Peter wished to punch the smug tone out of his voice. Peter groaned and threw open his door, turning around and walking over to his bed, where he plopped next to the strewn about schoolwork. He grabbed his pillow and tugged it over his face, where he proceeded to try and suffocate himself with.

He heard Tony walk into the room and shut the door. He then heard a snort and a slight snicker before a hand grabbed the pillow and tugged on it softly. “Can you not try and kill yourself with my body in the room? I don’t want to be framed.”

Peter removed the pillow and glared at the man and in an impromptu decision, he threw the soft pillow at Tony. Tony caught it with an unamused look and threw it back at Peter. Peter didn’t catch it, letting it hit him in the face and closed his eyes at it landed next to him.

“Alright, spill. Why the dramatics?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Peter deadpanned.

“Okay. Then why haven’t you been reporting to Happy? Why haven’t you responded to me?”

Peter rolled his eyes and threw a hand on his forehead. “One, I don’t have to report to him and two, I don’t have to respond to you. Plain and simple.”

Tony opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, seeming as if he didn’t know how to respond. Peter preened a little on the inside, he actually made _the_ Tony Stark speechless.

“Okay, what’s gotten into you? What happened to the kid who was looking at me with shining heart eyes and had more heart?”

“Had more _heart_? Oh, trust me, Mr. Stark, I have a whole lot of heart but right now, none for you.” Peter hissed under his breath, or what he thought was under his breath.

“What’s that mean?” Tony’s unemotional voice reached his ears. It was probably the first time that Peter had heard Tony speak to him with basically no feeling in his voice. Peter shook his head and muttered _never mind_ , closing his eyes and crossing his arms. He felt stuff being shifted next to him and then a warm weight sat on the bed next to him.

“Look, kid, I’m trying here. I’m trying to keep you safe and I’m trying to be a good _mentor_. You have to communicate with me.”

“You’re trying to keep me safe because you feel bad.” Peter interrupted, his big mouth making it’s entrance. Tony stopped talking and dropped his jaw. Peter just kept on though.

“You feel bad because you enabled a fourteen-year-old with a million-dollar, Stark Technology suit that makes me far more capable than I was in a ratty sweatshirt suit. You feel bad so you’re checking in on me and making sure I’m okay, tracking me in my suit even. You’re not trying to be anything, you’re trying to make your conscience feel better.”

“So what if I am?” Tony intercepted. “So what if I’m attempting to make myself feel better because I enabled a _kid_ to a weaponized suit? You should be jumping for you. You got a suit and you have Tony Stark on your side. Why are you being so down in the dumps about it?”

“I’m _upset_ because it’s a normal thing to be. I’m allowed to be upset about the fact that I don’t really have you on my side, I have a guilty conscience that has attached itself to me instead of the person itself. You don’t want to be here, you’re here because you feel obligated. I’m not an obligation, Mr. Stark. I never have been, and I never will be. So if you’re just going to view me as an obligation, you might as well take back your suit and leave me alone. That way you don’t have to feel guilty anymore about ‘enabling’ me.” Peter said, leaving his eyes closed because he knew they would be watery if he dared to open them.

There was a hard sigh next to him.

“Is that why you haven’t worn your suit in the last few weeks?” Tony asked, voice still emotionless but somehow softer. Peter nodded his head but then changed his mind, shaking his head. The theory was on the right path but didn’t include all the facts.

And Peter, Peter was so emotionally tired that he didn’t care anymore. He didn’t care that he was going be dropping a bombshell on Tony, he didn’t care that he was going into this without thinking fully about it. He wanted to be able to let it off his chest and let the person who his secret involved the most know.

He jumped up from his bed quickly and walked over to his desk. He heard Tony asking what he was doing behind him but paid him no attention. He grabbed the file that contained his birth certificates, his adoption papers and the letter from his mother along with the paternity results of his DNA. He gulped and turned around to look at Tony, who was watching him with concern in his eyes.

“This is why I’ve been off in the last few weeks. I’m sure you’ll understand why I’m feeling not like myself.” He said, shoving the file into Tony’s hands before flopping back on the bed face first and clenching his eyes shut, shoving his face into the mattress. He heard the file being opened and he heard Tony’s heartbeat start to race. Peter stopped paying attention at that point, focusing on anything else that would draw his attention away from this. The cars on the streets, the conversations in the apartments down the street, the sound of a dog chewing on a toy. Anything to distract from this.

It was silent for so long. Peter actually thought that Tony had left. It crossed his mind so quickly that Peter had to lift his head and look behind him. He saw that Tony was still sitting on his bed, the file still opened. Tony was stroking one of the papers and Peter’s eyesight allowed him to see that it was his birth certificate. The real one, the one that had Tony’s name on it. Tony’s eyes were wide open, his eyes fluttering over to another piece of paper – the paper that had matched Tony’s and Peter’s DNA on a paternity test, 99.9% accurate. If Peter’s eyes were working correctly, Tony’s eyes looked a little glassy. Peter saw Tony’s head turn towards him, so Peter quickly shoved his head back into the bed. Peter wasn’t ready to see such emotion on Tony’s face to be settled on him.

This wasn’t the reaction that Peter was expecting to be honest. He was expecting a snicker or a retort or a denial or refusal or snark. Anything but actual emotions. Because, this was Tony Stark, ya know? He was known for deflecting and snarking his ways around conversations.

“How long have you known?” The words were whispered into the air, breaking the silence.

“I’ve known officially for a month. Been digging in my past for about two months.” Peter answered, his voice muffled in his bed.

“I didn’t know, kid, I swear. I mean, Maya, your mother, she wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t qualified to take care of a kid back in the day. I was a wreck. It wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.”

“But it was the right thing to shove a child into a different family and rip him away from a chance at a childhood of growing up with his real father? I agree you weren’t capable back then, don’t get me wrong, but you should’ve known. You deserved to know. Maybe you would’ve cleaned up your act, maybe things would have been better, but we’ll never know because we can’t turn back time.” Peter whispered, finding his resentment settled in the fact that there was a life he could’ve had but can’t experience. He wonders what it would be like, growing up with a parent and remembering them throughout being a teenager and an adult, instead of growing up in a foster family. And Peter adored his foster family, but they weren’t his blood.

“Kid…” There wasn’t anything else that followed the word, just silence.

There was a wet chuckle.

“If this was a way to get me out of your life kid, you did the opposite.”

Peter’s head shot up and turned to the side, his face caught in an expression of confusion. Tony was looking at him with glassy eyes that were bright with emotion and it was probably the only time that Peter had felt such strong feeling off of the man.

“Huh?”

“You think that I’m going to just let my kid walk around in a onesie?” The words then dawned on Tony and his face paled.

“My kid’s Spider-Man. An enhanced…” The words fumbled out of Tony’s mouth. “You swing around on webs and fight criminals and you’ve not even out of high school yet.”

“To be fair, I’m only an enhanced because my mother decided to put me up for adoption.” Peter threw out, freezing underneath the icy glance that was thrown his way.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, you see…My adopted father kind of experimented on me when I was kid before he passed away?”

“What?” The word was deadpanned.

“Yeah, he developed some sort of serum that was injected into my body that bonded with my DNA and was dormant until I was bitten by a venomous/poisonous animal of any kind. Which it then became active and mutated my DNA until I am what I am today.” Peter mumbled out, laying his head back on the bed.

Tony threw his hand out and closed it twice in the action of ‘give me’. Peter stared at his hand. “You obviously found evidence of it somewhere, give it to me.” The words were firm and direct. Peter got up and reached under his bed, where he grabbed a flat plastic folder that contained the super soldier serum and the experimentation papers done on Peter. Peter was just going to hand Tony the experimentation papers on him, but he didn’t have a chance before Tony snatched it out of his grasp.

“Hey!”

“Knowing you, you’re hiding something else and I’m impatient and want to know everything.”

Peter watched as he took in the information, his face paling more and more with everything thing he read. Peter nodded at the reaction, agreeing with how Tony reacted. It’s exactly how Peter felt.

“This…This is…”

“A lot, I know.” Peter finished.

“Kid, don’t misunderstand me when I say this but I need time to really take this in. It’s not you, it really isn’t. I’m not tossing you aside either, kid, I just need time to think.” Tony said before randomly asking, “Can I take these?” Pointing at the documents still in his grasp

Peter nodded to his question. Even though Peter was upset earlier, he understands that Tony needed to think about this. “It’s fine. Just. Now that I told you, please don’t just disappear. Don’t get my hopes up but saying ‘I just need some time’ before throwing the documents in a fire and deleting me from existence.” Peter joked even though he was half serious.

“I’ll still be around, kiddo.” Tony said as he stood up, looking down at his watch and then running a hand through his hair. “Besides, I don’t think I could delete you from existence even if I wanted to. You’re too smart to disappear.”

Peter grinned, watching as Tony saluted and waved as he walked away with the file in his hand. Tony was right, he had made copies of the documents and wouldn’t go down without a fight if he needed to fight back.

* * *

 

“Peter Parker to the office, Peter Parker to the office.” The speaker for the announcements blared in the classroom and Peter looked around confusedly. As far as he was aware, he hasn’t done anything to warrant going to the office. It was nearing the end of the day, so Peter grabbed his backpack with his schoolwork inside and headed to the office.

He wasn’t expecting Happy Hogan to be standing in the middle of the office.

“Mr. Parker! Your family friend came to pull you out for your doctor appointment. Just as a precaution, since this man is not on your contact list nor is he on your list of people were named to be eligible to pull you out, you can identify this man as someone you know and someone that is a family friend, yes?” The secretary looked at him over her glasses, her eyes analyzing him. Peter nodded, throwing a small grin her way. The secretary narrowed her eyes before nodding. “Alright, Mr. Parker, have a good day. We’ll see you back here on Monday.”

“Bye, Mrs. Sparks.” Peter said as he walked out of the office behind Happy. As the pair walked down the steps and towards the car that was waiting at the curb, Peter’s big mouth started running. “I-is there a mission? Because, I didn’t bring my suit, so we’ll have to stop by my house. I never expected to be pulled out of school by you, Happy, and I always have to go home first before I go out in the suit, so I never bring it with me to school, ya know?” Even though Peter hadn’t been the most diligent superhero in the past few months, he would still pull on the suit if he was needed.

“Kid just get in the car.” Happy said, getting in the driver’s seat. Peter opened the back door and scrambled inside, pulling the door shut behind him. He had barely shut the door whenever he looked to his right and saw another person in the car with him. Tony Stark.

“Mr. Stark!”

“Kid.” Tony said, looking up from his phone to look at Peter. He analyzed him, starting at his curls on his head before descending his eyes down to his face to his body before shooting back up to his face and staring into his eyes. Nothing was said for a moment, just the car that started rolling on the pavement.

“I-I think I’ve had enough time to think things over.” Tony started, locking his phone and shoving it into his pocket. Peter stiffened up. He didn’t think this conversation was particularly going to be bad, but he wasn’t sure it was going to be great either.

“But, we’re not going to talk about that until we get to my home. Are you hungry? Yeah, you’re probably hungry with that ridiculous spider metabolism of yours. What are you in the mood for? Pizza, burgers, Italian, Thai?” Tony changed the subject so quickly, throwing his gaze to Happy as he waited for Peter’s response.

“Uh…Pizza’s good. Pepperoni and sausage?” He asked meekly, throwing his favorite type of pizza out there on a whim, hoping he wasn’t overstepping. Tony nodded and drew his phone back out. He held it out in front of him.

“FRIDAY, make an order at the best pizza place closest to the house. One cheese pizza, one pepperoni pizza, and two pepperoni and sausage pizzas. All large, delivered to the house in less than twenty minutes. Give a healthy tip.”

“Of course, boss. Order placed.” The tiny robotic voice responded from the phone.

There wasn’t much said on the drive back to Tony’s home. There was small mindless chatter and talk about how school was going for Peter. Eventually, they pulled up to the house and made their way inside. There was pizza already sitting on the counter and Peter’s mouth started salivating. It smelt like _heaven_. The food in the school cafeteria was never satisfying nor appetizing so Peter’s stomach craved some real sustenance and great taste.

Tony chuckled beside of him and Peter turned his head to look at him. Peter must have had a funny expression on his face because Tony was grinning at him. Tony gestured with his head. “Go dig in, kid. Plates are in the cabinet to the right of the pizzas.” Peter, driven by his need for food, immediately headed over to the pizza, grabbed a plate, and loaded his plate with five slices of pizza. He walked over to the table and started to devour his food. He barely heard the sound of a bottle hitting the table in front of him. He looked up, two bites of pizza in his mouth, to see a cold-water bottle sitting in front of him. He looked at the back of Tony’s back, as he was grabbing a slice or two for himself. Peter shrugged and went back to eating his food in peace, groaning internally with every bite. This was the best pizza he had ever ate.

Tony sat in front of him and ate his pizza at a slower pace than Peter. Peter’s face started to feel flushed due to his lack of control and he swallowed gingerly. He opened the water bottle in front of him and gulped down two mouthfuls before wiping his mouth.

“As I said in the car, I’ve had time to think things over.” Tony started. He ignored his pizza on his plate, choosing to stare at Peter instead. Tony’s eyes were analyzing Peter again, staring at him.

Peter stared back, waiting for him to continue.

“Do you want me to be a constant figure in your life? And are you sure that you want me to be constant, unchanging presence in your life? There’s no takebacks on this, kid. Once you let me into your life, there’s not a chance that you can get me out. I’m a stubborn old man and I don’t take no for an answer. I don’t know how to be a father or even a friend or a mentor. You have to be sure that you want this.” Tony explained, gesturing with his hands and leaning back, a wall coming up in his eyes.

Peter gulped. Did he want Tony to be a constant figure in his life? Peter didn’t even need to think about it. He did. He was resentful at the past he could’ve had but he wasn’t stupid enough to let a good thing pass him by. Peter nodded and looked back at his plate.

“I’m scared too, ya know?” Peter started, quietly. “My mind’s been all over the place for the two months and I haven’t been sure how to feel. This huge bombshell was thrown at me, although I was looking for it, and it’s affected me so much that it’s been hard holding all the information to myself. I was upset, angry, sad, confused, torn, and just a mess because I felt like I was losing my identity of myself. This entire situation was flipped my world upside and, as childish as this sounds, I would like to see where our relationship could go? We could stay as mentor/mentee or just friends or if we ever get to that comfortable stage, we could be family…ya know?” Peter rambled, knowing his words weren’t making much sense or weren’t connecting. He looked up and saw Tony looking at his was a certain softness in his eyes.

“Yeah, kid, I know.” Tony breathed heavily. “It’s so odd, knowing that I have a real life son. And I was real tempted to walk myself out of your life and never show my face again.” Tony started and Peter’s heart fell into his stomach.

“For your safety. Anyone who has gotten close to me as gotten hurt. Pepper’s been kidnapped and Rhodey…Rhodey was in the way of shot that was aimed for me and is now recovering from that. People close to me get hurt. But it was also those same people, Pepper and Rhodey, who talked sense into me and told me to not let your walk out of my life because I’d regret that decision in a few days or weeks. And I’m scared shitless, kiddo. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m scared that I’m going to mess you up or ruin your youth, or whatever. I’m scared that I’m not good for you.” Tony said, his eyes looking away from Peter, his face screwed up slightly. Tony didn’t seem to be one to be open and express his emotions so willingly, so he appeared uncomfortable.

Peter understood his reasoning. He didn’t know what had happened first hand for Tony to think that way but he could get why Tony would be scared of being bad for him.

“But, I’m willing to try. It’ll probably take time. And effort. But kid, I want to really get to know you and have you as a part of my life.” Tony finished, turning back to look at Peter. They stared at each other for a moment. Peter, with uncertainty and appreciation in his eyes, and Tony, with timid and fond eyes.

Peter slowly nodded. “We can try. I’m scared, you’re scared. But sometimes, good things in life are scary.” He said, taking another bite of pizza and chewing noisily. “Hope you’re ready to deal with me.” He said through a mouthful of pizza, purposely trying to be the most annoying he could possibly be.

Tony started to grin as he stared at Peter with his mouth stuffed full of pizza, grease around the edges of his mouth. “Oh, kid, I’m ready for a challenge. Which I’m sure you are.” Tony got up and to throw his plate in the sink and looked over his shoulder as walked. “Oh, you’re wearing your suit I gave you from now on. No buts. Burn your old suit, for all it matters. Christ, it’s like you want to be made fun of.”

Peter made a noise indignantly in the back of his throat. He swallowed hastily. “It’s not that _bad!_ ” He exclaimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, now tony knows so i can finally start the father-son bonding. there will hopefully be fluff and angst. i've decided that from here on out, that the storyline is going to include the events that happen in the movies but i will probably not be including them in this work. this story should be an original, not a re-writing of the movies.  
> leave a comment, tell me what you think, leave a kudo perhaps? thanks for reading!  
> ask any questions you have on my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/btsfxxkmeup), i'll respond to questions there.  
> again i'm not the proudest of this chapter but eh.  
> i'll try to update asap, whenever my mental health allows


	6. Flash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “FRIDAY, scan him. Tell me everything and I mean, everything. I don’t care if he has a tiny cut on his palm, I want to know about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my muse comes to me at 1 AM and then suddenly, i've wrote 6000 words  
> hope ya'll enjoy

They had to tell Peter’s foster family about the situation. That way there was a schedule set up formally between the Brown’s and Tony Stark. They obviously didn’t tell his foster family everything, just told them that Peter had been born without Tony ever knowing and the birth certificate had recently been found. The Brown’s were overjoyed for Peter, knowing that this meant the world to him – that he had biological living family. They knew they were considered family to Peter as well but it’s different, having your biological parent.

It was set up so that on every Tuesday and Friday, Peter would get picked up by Happy and go to Tony’s house, where the pair would hang out and then Peter would spend the night. Wednesday morning, Happy would drive Peter back to school and on Saturday morning, he would wake up and have breakfast with Tony before heading back to his foster home that afternoon.

It’s only been two months since Tony found out about Peter’s parentage, but it was slightly odd how quickly Peter was able to slid into Tony’s life. Considering that two months ago Peter wanted nothing to do with Tony, it’s quite odd how easy it was to make himself a part of the billionaire’s life. Awkward conversations filled with hesitation and uneasy silence quickly slid into animated conversations filled with laughter and comfortable silence. Peter remembers the first time that the air in between the two wasn’t filled with hesitation.

_Peter sighed as he walked into Tony’s house, sitting his bag on the floor by the door. He stretched as he walked into the kitchen, snatching an apple off of the counter. He quickly bit into the fruit, closing his eyes at the delicious, sweet taste._

_“Think fast.” Was all he heard before his spider sense flared in the base of his skull. He turned on his heel and spun around, catching the object before it could make contact with his head. He untightened his grip and stared at the object in his hand. It was small, rectangular, and looked to have a wrist band. The small rectangular object had a nozzle that flared at the top of it and there was a button on the side._

_“What’s this?” He asked, tilting his head and staring at the man who threw the object at him. Tony stared back at him, arms crossed as he looked at Peter with a mirthic expression. He was dressed in an old band tee, specifically Black Sabbath, that looked frayed around the edges. It was paired with some blue jeans that had a tiny hole in the knee._

_“I don’t know, Spider baby, you tell me. You’re the one who designed it. I just took apart your old ones and made new ones, following the design that you made. Figured you’d prefer it to stay familiar to you.” Tony said, raising an eyebrow at Peter as his mouth dropped._

_“No way!” Peter whispered, a new light coming into his eyes. He turned the object back and forth, staring at the item with new interest. “You built new web shooters for me...and actually followed my design? Instead of making a new design? Be careful, Mr. Stark, that makes it look like you actually like me.” Peter teased, trying the web shooter on._

_“Okay, now it’s obvious you’re spending too much time around me. Just a week ago, you barely could talk to me without stuttering and now you’re sassing me? The disrespect.” Tony quipped, watching as Peter played around with the wrist strap. Peter aimed his wrist at a nearby empty wall and pushed the button on the side, watching with amazement as the string flung out of the rectangle at a much faster speed than he was used to. It attached seamlessly and when Peter tugged, the string barely gained any tension, seeming to be stronger than it was before._

_“Whoa.” Peter said, grinning as he tugged with renewed fever at the web. The string was resolved to stay tensionless, it didn’t move an inch, not even with Peter tugging and pulling away with all of his strength._

_“I take it that you like it.” He heard Tony behind him with a grin in his voice. Tony obviously loved watching Peter play around with his new items just as much as Peter loved trying them out._

_“Like it? I love it, thank you so much, Mr. Stark.” Peter said, turning around to grin at Tony. Peter watched as Tony’s grin become softer, more rounded around the edges as he took in Peter’s bright expression._

_“Well, you can thank me by picking up your backpack that’s by the door and putting it in your room.” Tony said, tilting his head to the side. Peter rolled his eyes, turning his head to look at the backpack. It was only about 30 feet away from him, but Peter just honestly felt like whining for no reason, just to see Tony’s reaction._

_“But…but that’s so far!” Peter fake groaned, slumping against the wall. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it, Mr. Stark.” Peter whispered, sliding down the wall. “Actually having manners and doing what you tell me, this isn’t an alternate universe.” His butt finally hit the ground. He kept his eyes closed as he threw his unarmed hand over his eyes. “Oh, woe is me.”_

_He heard light snickering at his dramatics which made the corners of his lips twitch. In an effort to not laugh, he slumped over onto the floor, making the ‘flop’ noise as his body hit the ground._

_Footsteps trodden towards him, stopping by his feet. He felt a foot poking his leg and he lifted his hand away from his face briefly. He peeked open an eye to look at the man. Tony was bending over slightly over Peter, staring at him in amusement._

_“You done with the dramatics? There’s only room for one drama queen in this household and it’s not you bucko.”_

_“Pepper’s not a drama queen, you have your information wrong. You need to fire whoever told you that.”_

_Tony spluttered for a moment. “Now, wait a damn second, I never inferred that Pepper was a drama queen.”_

_“But she’s only queen in this household. I’m a student. You’re a ‘mechanic’. Pepper’s a CEO and that’s close enough to a queen for me.” Peter informed Tony, pulling his hand down to cross his arms over his chest. Tony looked lost for words._

_“Sometimes, you really astound me, kid. Your way of thinking, wow. Totally brilliant.” The words were deadpanned at him, Tony giving him a look of disbelief and amusement._

_“I think that’s sarcasm. Do I detect sarcasm? That’s mean to treat your own son with sarcasm.”_

_Tony groaned, standing back up to his full height. “You’re too much sometimes, why do you have to be like me sometimes. Is this what it’s like dealing with me? I feel some regret to Pepper and Rhodey now.” Tony muttered, running a hand through his hair._

_“No, you’re worse.” Peter said matter-of-factly, pulling up from his sprawled-out position on the floor._

_“My own flesh and blood, against me.” Peter stood up directly and barely had time to steady himself before an arm wrapped around his neck gently. Peter didn’t try to fight the hold, allowing himself to be manhandled. Peter spluttered as a hand rubbed against his hair._

_“M-Mr. Stark!” Peter exclaimed._

_Tony laughed, mussing him Peter’s hair even more so. He dragged Peter forward gently and over to his backpack. Tony released Peter from the grasp of his arm and gripped the back of his neck instead._

_“You see, that wasn’t so hard. You were able to do it. You would think you were dying from how your dramatics were going.” Tony said, voice colored with amusement._

_“I am dying, it’s just internal.” Peter said without an expression. He was, of course, pulling Tony’s leg but he had to mess with the man. Tony squeezed the back of his neck in retaliation and shook him slightly before letting go. Peter turned and watched as Tony started to walk out of the room. Tony’s voice reached him._

_“C’mon squirt, the sooner it gets to your room then the sooner I’ll think about helping you create your own AI with your own code, from scratch.” Peter’s eyes widened in awe “Wait, Mr. Stark, really?” Peter exclaimed, looking at the exiting man._

_He could practically feel the man’s grin. “Chop chop, kid.”_

_That was all the explanation he got from Tony, but it had him picking up his backpack within seconds and hurrying down the hallway. By the time that he got to his room and sat his backpack on his bed, he realized that for the first time since they started their meetings that the air in between the two hadn’t been awkward or filled with uncomfortable silence or conversation to just fill the silence._

_Peter smiled, joy filling his body. He’s never regretted telling Tony about his parentage._

He was startled out of his memories by the sound of the bell shrilling loudly. He shook his head and gathered up his things, stuffing them in his backpack. He tossed his backpack over his shoulder and made his way into the hallway where the stream of students were filling the hallway.

He saw Ned standing near his locker and he smiled and waved, happiness enveloping his body. Peter started walking towards Ned but was interrupted by a hand shoving against his shoulder, knocking him against the nearest set of lockers. He shoulder sharply hit the corner of the locker and he winced, feeling the area begin to sting. He looked up and stared into the narrowed eyes of Flash.

“Watch where you’re going, Penis.” The words were hissed at him, full of ice and menace.

That was the newest name that Flash had started throwing at Peter and sadly, it was seeming to stick. It must be the fact that it fit in with his real name and had the correct number of letters as his first name. Peter sighed, rolling his eyes internally.

Peter muttered underneath his breath. “Can’t really watch where I’m going when you’re the one always singling me out.” A hand fisted the neck of his shirt and dragged him inwards. He was forced to stare at Flash as Flash stared back at him.

“What was that, orphan boy? Are you actually trying to talk back? Don’t you have manners?” Flash teased, ice dripping from his words. Peter didn’t try to get out of his hold, staring at the kid with sadness in his eyes. He felt so sad and bad for the kid. How miserable his life must be to torment another kid.

“I only have manners for those that deserve them.” Peter said flatly, knowing that Flash wouldn’t like that, but he was already in this position, might as well stand up for himself a little bit.

That turned out to be a really bad idea though. Flash had a bigger upper hand since he was just holding onto Peter’s collar with one hand. Peter was able to watch as many emotions flashed over his face until it settled on determination. Peter saw his other hand pull back and he resolved himself to taking the punch. He couldn’t dodge and avoid it without coming off as suspicious, as he never did that before he had powers. He also couldn’t fight back, because that would also be odd that puny Peter Parker could fight back.

His head flew back from where the punch landed directly on his jaw. Flash never pulled his punches, so Peter was able to feel his head snap back forcefully. There was a sharp, stabbing pain that pounded into his head and jaw, sending shockwaves up to his temples. Another punch landed directly into his nose and another three jammed itself into his ribs. Peter was let go from Flash’s hold and thought that was going to be the end of it. But a kick to the back of his knees caught him off guard and he was sent flying to the floor as his knee buckled. Once he was on his hands and knees, Flash barely restrained himself. There was a multitude of kicks landed into his sides, stomach, and legs. A fist landed into his back before he heard Flash being pulled away with remarks of ‘ _That’s enough, dude. Do you want to get suspended for beating up that trash?’_. Peter would’ve rolled his eyes if he could, but his entire side was burning, and his right leg was stinging. He tasted blood within his mouth and felt it trailing out of his down and down his face. A hand grasped around his arm and helped him up. Peter gasped as the parts of his body that were burning intensified with the stretch of his limbs.

“Peter, are you okay? I can’t believe Flash is such an asshole to pick on you. I tried to get over here as quick as I could but it all happened so quickly.” Ned’s worried voice reached him as he helped for Peter to straighten up. It happened quickly? It felt like he experienced that all in slow-motion. There was still a steady stream of students in the hallway but there was multiple eyes staring at him. People were staring at him as the walked outside of the school, heading home.

Peter diverted his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m okay, I think.” He whispered, wiping the back of his hand against his nose and wincing when it came back red. “I’m going to go clean up in the bathroom. Come with me?” He asked, gently. Ned nodded. Of course, he did. He was the greatest best friend that anyone could have.

Together, the pair made their way to the nearest bathroom. He saw the slight crook in his nose and sighed. He hadn’t wanted to deal with another broken nose for a while. He turned his head and to the side and placed his hands on either side of his nose and flattened them against it. He sharply turned his hands quickly to the opposite direction his nose was crooked to and winced as he felt the nose shift back into the proper position. Peter stuffed toilet paper up his nose, eyes water as he irritated the break in his nose. Peter yanked a couple of pieces of paper towels out of the dispenser and wet it with water, wiping the blood from his face.

He winced, looking at his face. There was already an ugly bruise blooming on his face. He lifted his shirt to look at the damage and sighed. There was a big blooming red mark that covered his entire right side of his torso. There was an area were Flash’s boots had actually hit hard enough to rip skin off. He couldn’t check his leg, but he hurt every time he walked so he figured that a bone was sprained somewhere.

Peter remembered what day it was and groaned out loud. It was Friday and Happy was picking him up today. There was no way that he was going to be able to hide this. He’ll just blame it on a fight last night that Spider-Man ended. That was a reasonable excuse, right?

Ned offered his reassurances and sympathy as he watched Peter try to clean himself up. There was only so much he could do. Hopefully, Happy wouldn’t notice the blood that had dripped onto his shirt. There was only a few drops and thankfully, his shirt happened to be red. It was the same color of his blood, but it was close enough. After Peter did all that he could and had threw away the used toilet paper that had been stuffed in his nose, the pair made their way out of the school. Peter was still lightly limping, his face still stung, and his nose was still rubbing him with a sharp stab of pain. Peter knew that even with his healing, it wouldn’t be near normal until tomorrow morning.

Peter waved goodbye to Ned once he noticed the shiny, black car waiting against the curb. He opened the car door and slid in, buckling in his seatbelt.

“Hey, Happy.” Peter said, meeting Happy’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Had a rough night?” Happy said, obviously meaning Peter’s bruised face. Peter nodded with a frown on his face before coming up with a huge slew of what happened and how Peter was over-powered for a second until he got his bearings.

Happy nodded, not looking like he believed Peter’s explanation for a second but letting it slid. Peter aimlessly chatted about random things while they were on their way to Tony’s house. Peter didn’t particularly feel like talking right now, especially because it hurt to move his jaw for long periods of time, but he knew that this was how rides with Happy went. It took about twenty minutes for them to get to Tony’s house.

Before Peter knew it, they were pulling down the long drive that led to Tony’s house. Tony was actually waiting outside for them and Peter gulped. He didn’t want to lie about his injuries but, he wasn’t sure exactly how Tony would react to Peter’s bully. Tony could overreact and get the kid expelled or he could want to know how and why Spider-Man lets a normal high school bully gets the best of him?

How was Peter supposed to explain that puny Parker couldn’t fight back before the bite, so he shouldn’t now? It’s like the same analogy of how Peter couldn’t run track before the bite, so he shouldn’t now. Also, if Flash was going to pick on someone, Peter would rather for it to be him than anyone else; at least Peter had super-healing. Peter could take the hits, physical and verbal. The physical goes away within a day and maybe the verbal, maybe it makes an impact on his psyche but it’s nothing that he couldn’t handle. Right? Peter willed his shaking hands to stop, scolding them in his mind. He took a few deep breaths and prepared himself, opening up the door to make himself appear to the older man.

“Pete!” He heard Tony exclaim. Peter was able to hear the smile in that single word and Peter smiled back, despite the pain in his jaw. He lifted his head and watched as the bright although small smile fall off of Tony’s face and get replaced with a frown. There was a crease in between his eyebrows as he took in Peter’s face.

Peter walked towards where Tony was standing, on the porch that was connected to the house. He stopped on the top step of the small set of stairs. He would’ve gone forward more but Tony didn’t move out in front of him, blocking him from going forward anymore. He closed his eyes softly as fingertips grasped his chin gently and tilted his head to the side, exposing the bruised side of his face to his father. A hand settled underneath his jaw, a thumb lightly stroking the bruise.

“What happened here, buddy?” The words were soft, gentle.

He shortened the version of the story he gave Happy. “It’s from last night. When I was patrolling, I got distracted while I was fighting against a gang of three people. One of them got a couple of good hints in before I was able to regain my footing.”

He heard Tony hum nonchalantly. “Is that all that happened?” Peter nodded, crossing his fingers internally and hoping that Tony buys the story.

One of the hands dropped from his face to his shirt collar, fingering the soft material before picking at a few spots. Peter gulped, knowing that Tony was picking at the spots were blood had landed from his broken nose. He whispered in his mind, ‘ _please don’t ask about it, please don’t ask about it. Let it go, let it go_ ’.

Thankfully, Tony didn’t ask anything. Yet. When Peter opened his eyes and looked at Tony’s facial expression, he knew that Peter was lying and wouldn’t be leaving it alone. The hand on his chin moved away to land on Peter’s shoulder and curl him into Tony’s side as they entered the house. Tony squeezed his shoulder once before nudging the young teen forward.

“You know the drill, go put your backpack in your room. Get changed or do whatever it is that teenager’s must do once they get home. After you’re done, meet me in the lab. Okay, squirt?” Tony said, ruffling the teen’s hair. Peter nodded and threw a tiny smile at Tony before heading to his room. He entered his room and threw his backpack on the floor before flopping on his bed. He shoved his face into a pillow and groaned, ignoring the ache in his face.

Tony wasn’t going to let this go. Tony just seemed to have an ability to tell when Peter was lying, or Peter was just an extremely bad liar. It was probably the latter. Peter sighed one more time before lifting his head and roaming his eyes over his room.

His walls were a dark red with dark hardwood flooring. There was a few posters in the room which were either Star Wars or Panic! At The Disco. There was an unfinished robot sitting on his desk, along with a few comic books and a textbook that didn’t come from his school but from Tony (it was a textbook for biochemistry). There was a closet that was closed at the moment but, Peter knew that it held many of his belongings. Over the last two months, Peter would slowly bring extra stuff with him whenever he visited Tony and started to make the room more of a ‘home’ to him.

Sighing once again, Peter ran a hand threw his hair and threw off his stained shirt. He opened the closet and grabbed a random tee shirt, which happened to be gray. He kept his shoes on because Tony was a stickler for having shoes on in the lab. Peter grabbed his phone out of his backpack and then exited his room, making his way down the hall and down the steps that led into the humongous basement.

It was a basement/garage. There was enough room down here for two of Tony’s prized cars and many of his inventions, as well as DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U. There was a huge curved metal desk that had two computers (Stark Technology, of course), each with three monitors, one on each side of the table. In between the computers laid unfinished projects created by both Tony and Peter. Tony was already down here, sitting at his computer, staring at a file that Peter couldn’t make out.

Peter coughed, alerting Tony to his presence. Tony didn’t acknowledge him, instead, he reached out and touched the screen on the monitor and pinched the screen, tossing his hand out into the air. The screen on desktop then enlarged itself to be visible to anyone in the room. Tony stood up from his chair and clicked on a file named ‘BMP’.

“Pete, any idea what BMP stands for?”

“Uh…basic metabolic panel? Are you giving me some sort of blood test or something?”

“You’re correct that BMP stands for basic metabolic panel but, in this case, BMP stands for Baby Monitor Protocol. Any idea _what_ this protocol is used for? I’ll give you a hint, it’s in your suit.”

Peter blanked out. Baby Monitor Protocol? It was apparently a monitoring system. It was in his suit? _Baby Monitor Protocol?_ It was a monitor for a… _baby?_ A child? Peter groaned as it hit him. It was a monitoring system for him. Probably had audio and video, as well with whatever else Tony could have put into the suit.

“You’re monitoring me, now?” Peter complained, throwing his hand out at the screen. Tony ignored him though, scrolling through the files with ‘BMP’. Each file was named with a month, day, and year. Every day wasn’t there but Peter figured that only the days that he had patrolled were in that list. Peter watched as Tony clicked on ‘ _Oct_21_2016_ ’, which was yesterday. He clicked on the last available file in the list, which was a video with audio. It was the last event that Peter took care of last night. The video showed Peter handling the car thief easily, webbing him up and allowing the car alarm to draw the police to their location. It showed Peter swinging away with no problem, talking out loud to himself before arriving back at his foster family’s house and sneaking back into his room.

The video ended and disappeared.

“For the record, yes, I am monitoring you. I’m not going to give a kid a suit that ‘enables’ them to their super powers and not keep a watch on them. I was doing this before I knew you were my son, so don’t try to say I’m being a helicopter parent.” Tony said, eyeing Peter whenever he went to open his mouth. Peter quickly closed it and gritted his teeth together. “I monitor you because I care, and I worry about you, I like knowing that you’re not dying in a ditch.”

Peter’s anger diminished quickly, understanding that Tony worries. He doesn’t like being watched but between that and a tracker, he’d accept the monitoring.

“No where on these files did you get attacked and get overwhelmed by a gang of three. There was fresh blood on your shirt. I want to know what happened, who did it, and why you lied to me.” There was hurt ringing through Tony’s voice. Peter felt his chest swell with guilt.

“It’s nothing.” Peter was able to said once he was able to breathe. Tony’s eyes were still watching him and appeared to get hard.

“If you keep lying to me, I’m going to have FRIDAY scan you and figure out what’s all wrong besides just assuming it’s your face that’s bruised. I’m trying to expand a hand of trust to you, Peter, but if I can’t trust that you’ll come to me when you need to, I will force my hand to help you.”

Peter bite his lip. He knew he should just tell Tony but all he could think of was the fact that if Tony found out that it was Flash hurting him, Tony would expel Flash or transfer Peter to a new school, and then Flash would pick on someone else, someone who couldn’t handle it and couldn’t bounce back quickly from the physical and verbal assault. So, he kept his mouth shut, his hands twisted in his pockets, and stared at the ground through his vision which was blurred due to unshed tears.

He heard a disappointed sigh from his father and the guilt swelled even more so in his chest.

“FRIDAY, scan him. Tell me everything and I mean, everything. I don’t care if he has a tiny cut on his palm, I want to know about it.”

“ _Scanning in progress, boss.”_ It was only a few seconds later that FRIDAY started to read out everything that she scanned.

“ _It appears that Mr. Parker has bruises on the right side of his face, the majority of the right side of his torso. He also has a broken nose that is in the process of healing. There is scuff marks on his torso and torn skin on his ribs. He has a sprain in his right ankle and a fracture in the right side of his jaw. It is recommended to not move his jaw much for the next four hours so that the fracture can heal properly. It is also recommended to not walk on the right ankle for the next three hours. Bruising on the ribs is already nearly healed, bruises on the face are in the process of healing. Scuff marks are disappearing, and the torn skin is knitting itself back together. Injuries seem to have occurred within the last hour.”_

Peter’s eyes widened as FRIDAY ratted him out on what time his injuries must have occurred at. FRIDAY wasn’t wrong but, Tony hadn’t asked that, so he was surprised to hear that she shared that bit of information. He heard Tony cuss and looked up to watch Tony rub his face harshly. Tony closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them and walking over to Peter. Peter gulped harshly, for he had never seen Tony this serious and determined, so _stern_.

“Shirt. Up. Now.” Tony said, right in Peter’s personal space. Peter hesitated to do so.

“Peter, don’t make me raise your shirt up myself.” Was all Tony said. There was a certain tone to Tony’s voice that had Peter reaching for the bottom of his shirt and lifting the right side up to showcase his side to his father. He felt gentle fingertips rubbing against the aching bruises on his side. They barely hurt now in comparison to what they felt like before. Fingers ghosted against the scuff marks and torn skin. He heard a deep sigh before he was allowed to drop his shirt.

A hand immediately reached out and brought his face in towards Tony’s. His head was tilted down and to the sides then back upwards. Tony was obviously checking out his healing nose. He felt a thumb rub against his cheek softly before he was let go. Peter watched Tony walk back to his desk and sit down. Tony was upset with him, it was obvious. He wasn’t grinning at Peter, he wasn’t really even looking at Peter. His stance was all wrong and his hands were fiddling with a screwdriver.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” The soft words were spoken, giving Peter another chance to dig himself out of the hole he was in.

Peter grasped onto the chance, hoping to tell the truth without telling the full truth. “It’s just a kid at school, it’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing, Peter!” Tony exclaimed, turning around to look at Peter. “Look at your face. Half of your face is bruised and if that isn’t enough, your nose was broken, your jaw is fractured, your ankle is sprained, and half of your torso was bruised as well. How is that nothing?” His voice was getting a little loud, full of impatience and disbelief and pain. Peter diverted his eyes. Tony stood up and grasped his chin, making Peter look at him.

“Look at me.” The words were firm but gentle. Peter lifted his eyes to stare into the eyes of Tony.

“Please.” The unspoken _tell me what happened_ was left unsaid, but it was still heard. Peter gulped and resolved himself to telling Tony everything that happened without saying who did it.

“There’s a kid in my grade.” He started off, noting that Tony looking a little relieved as Peter started to open up. “He’s never really liked me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m smarter than him. Maybe he just hates me for no reason. But for whatever reason, he’s picked me as a target since we’ve started high school together. Sometimes it’s just verbal assault but other times, like today, I’ll say something back and he doesn’t like when I talk back so he’ll start punching me until I’m down on my knees.” He saw pain well up in Tony’s eyes, but he continued talking, knowing that if he stopped then he wouldn’t start talking again.

“But I couldn’t defend myself before the spider bite, so I can’t defend myself now without appearing suspicious.”

Tony interrupted. “That’s why you tell me, that way I can do something about it.” Peter shook his head that was still in Tony’s grasp.

“No. No, no, no, no, no. I can’t. If you do something and _he_ gets expelled and sent to a different school or you transfer me to a different school, then he’ll just choose a different victim. Someone who can’t handle it. Someone who’ll break under the assault. At least I have super-healing. I can come back quickly from the physical assault.”

“That’s no reason to allow yourself to get beat up.” Tony said heatedly. He brought his hand from his chin to rest both of his hands upon Peter’s cheeks. “You should not have to give up your well-being just because a kid is an asshole and you want to be a hero as Peter Parker.” Peter’s heart stung at that. “I’m not saying that you can’t be a hero as Peter Parker but you’re going about it the wrong way. Let me talk to the principal. Let me do something, kiddo. Please. I can’t let someone asshole kid demolish the brightest thing in my life.” The words warmed Peter’s heart. He bit his lip, worrying it between his teeth. He really didn’t want to deal with Flash’s shit anymore but was he willing to take the risk of Flash getting expelled?

“This is a heroic move, Peter, because you’re showing bravery by talking to someone about it. This is heroic because you’re showing others that it’s okay and right to talk to someone about the people who are causing them pain in life. This is the right way to be a hero about this situation, not letting yourself be a punching bag. Please.” Before Peter even knew what was happening, he was nodding his head. Tony’s emotion-filled words dived straight past his wall and into his heart and tugged on that guilt until it had fell apart.

At Peter’s nod, Tony quickly dropped his hands from Peter’s face and embraced him, pushing Peter’s face gently into the crevice between Tony’s shoulder and neck. Peter wrapped his arms around Tony and felt the embarrassing urge to cry. He felt his eyes tear up and his face started to screw up in an effort to try not to cry. A hand was pressed tightly against his back, grasping Peter tightly, while another hand had travelled up to Peter’s head and was running through his hair, playing with the curls. Tony must have felt Peter’s body shaking slightly because all the sudden, soft crooning was being whispered into Peter’s ears.

They stood there, hugging and swaying softly back and forth before relaxing the hold. They didn’t break away, they were still hugging, it just wasn’t as desperate.

“His name is Eugene Thompson.”

He felt Tony nod. A _thank you_ was whispered into his hair and Tony’s grip tightened on him once more. They eventually untangled from each other. Tony laughed at the state of Peter’s hair, which was probably standing up and frizzed thanks to the continuous rubbing, but Peter saw how his eyes landed on his cheeks that were stained with his tears and saw his eyes soften while also getting filled with pain. Peter wiped his cheeks as best as he could without irritating his nose or jaw. Tony’s hand landed on Peter’s shoulder and guided him over to his part of the desk.

“Alright, underoos, let’s see what kind of mischief we can get into today.” They had barely started on developing a new type of software for StarkPhones when Tony’s voice came from behind Peter.

“Oh yeah, by the way, you’re grounded.”

Peter’s head shot up and he glared at Tony. “Wait, what? Why?” He exclaimed, placing his hand a little roughly on the table.

“You lied to me, twice, and didn’t tell me how much you were hurt. You’re grounded. A week.” Tony said, turning to look sternly at Peter, voice firm and saying _listen to me, I’m in charge, you did wrong so do the time and learn_. Peter sighed.

“Grounded from what?”

“No phone. Gimme it. I know you have it. You also have a curfew at 10:00 at night for the next week, sharp.” Tony said as he held his hand out, waiting for Peter’s phone. Peter had gotten his phone out but stuttered at the last half of the punishment.

“10:00?? Crime doesn’t even really happen until 9! Mr. Stark, that’s just not fair!” He exclaims.

“9:30. Don’t argue with me, Peter. Just accept it for what it is.” Tony said, changing the time to an earlier time. Peter’s mouth dropped and he handed Tony his phone, watching as the man turned it off and set it inside of a drawer with the desk.

“How are you supposed to get a hold of me if I don’t have my phone?”

“Oh trust me, I’ll have a hold of you. You’re staying here for the next week, already cleared it with your foster parents. The only time that you’ll be out of this house is if you’re at school, spider-manning, or with Ned. If you’re with Ned, I can easily figure out his number from your phone and message him. If you’re spider-manning, I’ll know because of BMP. If you’re at school, I’ll know because either myself or Happy will drop you off. If you skip school, I’ll know because they’ll call your foster parents and then they’ll call me. Peter, I’m trying really hard to not come off as a helicopter parent but for the next week, that’s essentially what I’m going to be. I don’t like breathing down your neck, kid, but I don’t like that you lied to me and I don’t like that you were hiding that you were hurt. If I have to watch for a little bit to calm my anxiety and over-protectiveness and to trust that you won’t do it again, then so be it.” Tony announced, letting every single one of his thoughts out for Peter to hear.

Tony never really was open with anyone, Peter knew this. That’s why whenever Tony explained how next week was going to happen with Peter essentially being watched, Peter didn’t get mad or upset. Peter knew this was supposed to make him learn and to not hide anything from Tony again and Peter understood. Tony felt a little hurt from being lied to and Peter feels horrible about lying to him.

And Peter hates that Tony is a bit disappointed in him, despite how proud he is of Peter for actually opening up about everything. Tony is disappointed because he hadn’t immediately come to trust in Tony and didn’t tell him the truth about what was going on.

“Okay.” Peter said, calmly. He watched as Tony watched him, curiously. Probably expecting a tantrum or a ‘ _but that’s not fair, Mr. Stark, c’mon’_. “I understand. I won’t do it again, Mr. Stark. Lie, that is. Or hide injuries. I’m sorry.” He watched what looked like _proudness_ and _fondness_ and _disbelief_ enter Tony’s eyes. As if he’s unable to believe that Peter would be that mature and accept the grounding for what it is.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, kiddo. Thank you for letting me help you.” _You mean the world to me_. The words went unspoken by Peter still heard them. Tony’s words were soft and gentle, full of fondness and relief. Because even though it took a bit of grasping at Peter, Peter eventually told Tony what was going on.

Peter smiled and waited for Tony to turn around in his seat. Peter jumped up whenever the time finally came and wrapped his arms around Tony’s shoulders. He hugged Tony tightly and felt as Tony’s hands came up and held onto his arms lightly, rubbing them. Before Tony could pull away, Peter snatched back one arm and held tightly onto Tony with the order, bringing his free hand up to rub viciously at his head and messing his hair up.

Tony squawked, trying to jolt his head out of Peter’s grasp. Peter laughed manically. “This is revenge for how you treat my hair, Mr. Stark. Doesn’t feel good, does it?” Peter eventually let go of the mechanic, diving behind the desk to avoid the man. He heard a playful hiss come from the man and he giggled, staying behind the desk, using it as a blockage between them.

“Oh, this is war, Parker.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was not the way this chapter was supposed to go, it was supposed to be fluff but ya know? eh  
> next chapter is fluff and cuddles since peter's grounded so they're gonna spend a bit of time together yay!  
> leave me a comment and tell me what you think? i take comments into consideration for what the readers want to see!!


	7. Soft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?”
> 
> “You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?” Peter mimicked, lowering his voice to be imitating Tony's.
> 
> “Alright, no. You’re already my mini-me, you’re not allowed to mimic me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this half asleep, don't judge the mistakes too much

Peter laid in bed until 10 o’clock that morning. He had woken up around eight but proceeded to doze off for the next two hours. Yawning once he woke up fully, he smacked his lips together as he pushed his face further into his bed. His cover was half on top of him and half hanging off of his bed. He had closed his eyes and planned on going back to sleep when there was a knock on his door.

“Pete? You awake, buddy?” The voice, Tony, came from behind his door. Peter didn’t answer, hoping that if he stayed quiet then Tony would assume he was still asleep and leave him alone.

Alas, he was proven wrong once he heard his door swing open smoothly. Footsteps lightly made their way over to Peter’s bed and a finger barely hit his exposed foot. Peter grunted and pulled his leg back underneath the cover for safety, grumbling unhappy.

“Ah, there he is. C’mon, grumpy. Food’s waiting downstairs and you don’t want it to get cold, do you?” Peter lazily waved a hand in the general direction of Tony, already feeling himself slipping back into unconsciousness.

His eyes opened harshly as he felt his cover being yanked off of him. He groaned, closing his eyes and squeezing them tightly together. “No…” He whined, dragging his pillow over his head. He was so _comfortable_ , he didn’t want to move yet.

“Yessss.” Tony whined back at him, grabbing his ankle and shaking Peter’s leg. “You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?”

“You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?” Peter mimicked, lowering his voice to be imitating Tony's.

“Alright, no. You’re already my mini-me, you’re not allowed to mimic me.”

Peter grunted, trying to tug his leg out of Tony’s grasp. A hand lightly danced against the back of his knee and Peter kicked away from the intrusive hand.

“Stop, you’re playing dirty!” Peter whined, his eyes opening to glare at the offender. Of course, Tony was wearing a shit-eating grin. The hand returned to the back of his knee and Peter turned over, flopping onto his back and huffed, disgruntled about not being allowed to go back to sleep.

“You’re so pouty this morning, what happened, did you dream something good and wanted to experience again? Was it a secret crush? Maybe about Ted?”

“His name is Ned. I just want to sleep…” Peter moaned, not giving into the jabs Tony was poking at him.

“Well, maybe you wouldn’t be so tired if you’d go to sleep when your supposed to instead of staying awake to tinker in the lab until five in the morning.”

“But, but, but…there was just so much to play with, I couldn’t wait until this afternoon!” Peter explained, looking at Tony through half lidded eyes. Tony rolled his eyes and smack Peter’s leg lightly then went for Peter’s arm and lifted him upwards. Peter went with it willingly, knowing that Tony wasn’t going to give up and Peter was just going to have give into his demands. Peter slumped over once he was sitting upright and glared at the offending man.

“Alright, up and at ‘em. Change into some fresh clothes, shower if you need to wake up. Food is downstairs. If you’re not down in twenty minutes, I’m going to dress you myself and hand feed you if you need to be treated like an itty-bitty kiddo. Or should I say an itty-bitty spider? Chop, chop.” Tony patted Peter’s back and left, probably going downstairs to put Peter’s plate in the microwave that way it didn’t get too cold.

Peter groaned and stood up, stretching and sighing once his back popped. He ran a hand through his hair and winced when he tugged on the tangled ends. Shuffling into the bathroom that was connected to his room, he yawned and clenched his eyes shut.

“FRIDAY, can you turn the shower on? Full blast and put it on the hottest temperature, please?”

“ _Sure thing, Mr. Parker_.” The sound of water blasting against tile reached Peter’s ears as he dragged his shirt and pants off. Opening the glass door to the shower, he stepped in and sighed in bliss as the hot blast of water hit his back. He let the stream of water flow over him and sleepily enjoyed the warm feeling encasing him before he got to work and started to actually shower.

After scrubbing his body and washing his hair, he sadly turned off the water, shivering once the water wasn’t hitting anymore. Goosebumps appeared on his arms once he stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel from above the toilet. He wrapped it around his shoulders, holding it tightly to him as he exited his room.

Ever since he had got the bite from the spider, his temperature threshold had changed. Fifty degrees felt like thirty degrees to him while ninety degrees felt like seventy degrees. He was also incredibly sensitive to temperatures now. He would start shivering almost immediately in temperatures less than forty degrees.

It wasn’t forty degrees in his room, but his core temperature had rose in the shower and coming out that blissful warmth was a shock to his body and the room temperature of his room, which was at seventy-five degrees (feeling like fifty-five degrees). Shivering, he made his way over to his closet and pulled out a maroon tee shirt with the saying, ‘ _How do your organize a space party? You planet.’,_ surrounded by a bunch of planets and party hats. Peter also pulled out a pair of black sweatpants and paired the outfit with matching black socks. He pulled on some underwear before pulling on the rest of his clothes.

Peter ran a hand through his still damp curls. Although his eyes were open now, that didn’t mean that he was any more awake than he was fifteen minutes ago. His mind was still sluggishly moving along as he walked out of his room and down the hallway, heading towards the smell of bacon and eggs. He shuffled his feet along the flooring, heading into the kitchen. He took in the scene and just blinked owlishly at the sight.

Tony was standing over the stove, alternating between turning over some bacon in the pan and stirring his spatula in the pan full of scrambled eggs. There was biscuits cooling on the counter beside of Tony with bowl of butter next to it.

“I know that I’ve seen you cook before but it’s still weird.” Peter grumbled, walking over to the table and sitting down, setting his head in his hand and resting against it.

“You think that everything about me is weird. Just because your dad is Iron Man, that doesn’t mean that I’m a bad-ass all the time.”

“You said it, not me.” Peter mumbled, letting the half-hearted swat hit him in the head, barely moving with the action. “Besides, Mr. Stark, I knew you weren’t a bad-ass all the time before I knew you were my father. You remember that party that you threw sometime before the Stark Expo with the drones? I heard from a little bird that you- “

“Kid, I’m gonna shove eggs up your nose if you finish that sentence. Who told you? Rhodey or Pepper?”

“I’m not telling.”

“Okay, Pepper. Got it. She’s officially a traitor and banned from my humble abode for- “

“Telling me that you peed yourself in your suit?”

“You had to say it.”

Peter shrugged, lifting his head to grin sleepily at his father who was back to turning over the bacon. There was two plates sat on the counter now, one with two biscuits while the other had three. They were already buttered and soon enough, the plates were filled with bacon and scrambled eggs. The plate with a much larger amount of food was placed in front of Peter.

“I don’t need this much food.” Peter grumbled even though his stomach was roaring at that moment.

Tony pointed his fork at Peter. “I think you’ve forgot that I’ve seen your health reports. I’ve seen how fast your metabolism runs. Trust me, you need all of that food. Eat or else I’m really going to shove eggs up your nose, brat.” The words were spoken in jest. Peter hummed and picked up his fork and started stabbing at his eggs, lifting them into his mouth with half-lidded eyes.

“Jeez, kid, you’ve really wore yourself out, huh?”

“I’m _tired.”_ Peter whined around a mouthful of food, swallowing roughly. Peter’s eyes starting watering at the burn and stood up, walking to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. He downed half of the bottle before taking in a gulp of air. He walked back to the table and sat the bottle down, scarfing down more of his food.

“A certain spider-kid wouldn’t be tired if he would go to sleep when his bedtime is.” A pointed look was given to Peter. Peter rolled his eyes but nodded, knowing that Tony was right. By the time that Peter was finished with his food, his eyes were almost closed again. His stomach was full, he was warm and clean and, in an environment, that he deemed safe, he was content to just go back to sleep where he was. He slumped against the table, right where his plate had been before he had scooted it to the side. He laid his face against the table and hummed, closing his eyes and letting himself drift.

He came back to himself whenever he felt a hand rubbing against his head. The plates were cleared off of the table and the smell of breakfast seemed to have disappeared.

“Hey, buddy. You feeling okay? I know I’ve been joking about how tired you are but it’s kind of worrisome now.” Tony’s gentle voice reached him. Peter opened his eyes a hair and was met with the expression yet concealed concern look of Tony. Peter hummed and nodded his hair.

“I’m really just tired, Mr. Stark. I promise.” Peter said, closing his eyes as he did so.

“Alright, well, you can go back to sleep but not on the table. C’mon, up we go.” Tony said, helping Peter to stand up. Tony gripped Peter’s arm tight but not too tight to hurt and steered him towards the living room. Peter stumbled a few times but made it to the couch relatively safely. Once he got to the couch and was pushed down gently, he let his body fall naturally to curl up on the couch with his head on the armrest. He wiggled around a bit and hummed once he found his perfect position.

He heard snickering above his head before something warm was tossed over him. “You’re so picky and huffy when you’re sleepy, kid. It’s kinda, God forbid, heart-warming.” Peter grunted, not bothering to reply to him. Some movie was flicked on and background noise filled the silence. The lights were dimmed so there wasn’t any bright spots behind Peter’s eyelids anymore. Something warm and scratchy pressed against his forehead then something warm pressed against his hair.

“Sleep tight, Pete.”

Peter woke up to the sound of people talking. There was a hand running through his hair and his head was resting on something firm yet warm. The hand in his hair paused before scratching lightly at Peter’s scalp before resuming petting his hair. Peter smiled sleepily and nuzzled further into hand, enjoying the presence.

Then the sounds of the voices started to jab annoyingly at his ears.

“Tony, you had a press conference and two board meetings to attend today! You can’t just reschedule them whenever and however you want.” Pepper’s firm yet soft voice reached his ears.

“Of course I can. I’m Tony Stark. Have you met me?” The voice came next to Peter, vibrating through were Peter’s head was resting. So, he was laying on Tony’s lap. Nice to know, even though he’s not sure how Tony wiggled underneath of Peter’s body.

“This isn’t a joke, Tony. That press conference was on the Accords and both meetings were created about security and developmental issues in SI. Those things can’t just be rescheduled Tony!”

“If they can’t, then why were they?” Silence followed. “Look, I understand, the public wants to know about the Accords and what decision has been reached. I get that, but they can wait a little bit longer. As for the issues with SI, didn’t I make you CEO? Like five years ago? Or was that just a fever dream? Pep, you’re CEO. Of Stark Industries. If there is security and development issues within SI, that is your jurisdiction. You don’t need me there for them.”

There was a long sigh. “Fine. No more board meetings _unless_ necessary when you’re actually needed. But look, Tony, I understand why you’re rescheduling things but just because you have a kid around now doesn’t mean that you can push things back and around to fit your needs.”

“Again, yes I can. I’m the President of Stark Industries. It has my last name, as far as I’m aware.” The hand in Peter’s hair left and Peter could just imagine that Tony was throwing his hands up and shrugging.

“If I have to schedule a few things around that way I can spend some time with my son, I will. I’m not a family man, Pep. I don’t schedule vacations in advance and I don’t take pictures on the first day of school and definitely don’t give affection as much as I should. I will, however, dote as much time as I can on him whether he is awake or asleep because he deserves at least that much from me, okay, Pep?” Tony voiced, a gentler tone replacing the arrogant tone of his voice. The hand was back but this time, it was rubbing his back. Peter felt himself relax further against Tony, not realizing that he had tensed up during the conversation.

“It seems to me that you’re doing a pretty good job.” Pepper said, the smile visible in her tone. Heels clacked against the floor and then another hand was brushing his hair away from his forehead. “You’re good with him, Tony. Really good. Better than I would have ever thought was capable, to be honest.”

Tony’s chuckle reached Peter’s ears and echoed through his legs. “Me too, Pep. What can I say? There’s just something special about this kid.”

Once again, heels clacked on the floor and seemed to be exiting the building. “Next week, Monday at noon. Press conference. No rescheduling! I’m not coming out to your house to bully you into attending either. FRIDAY, please make an appointment for the press conference and set it with alarms loud enough to shock Tony out of any stupor that he’s in.”

“ _Right away, Miss Potts_.”

The heels that Peter heard were now on concrete, on the sidewalk outside so Peter was safe to assume that it was just Tony and himself in the house now. Yawning, Peter stretching slightly against Tony and grinned at the groan that Tony let out.

“Oh, I see how it is, I let you use me as a pillow and you crush into the side of the couch. See if I’m nice to you again.” Tony snipped playfully, ruffling Peter’s hair.

“You have to be nice to me, I’m your son.” Peter said, sitting up and rubbing harshly at his eyes. Once he stopped rubbing at them, there was black spots that popped up in his vision. Once his vision cleared, he was greeted with the sight of Tony grinning softly at Peter. Peter cocked his head to side in confusion. Tony gestured to his own head then pointed at Peter, his grin becoming rounder.

Peter slid his hands up and felt around at his hair and groaned, feeling the way that it had become stuck in weird ways. Part of his hair was smushed against his head while part of his hair was in his natural normal curls and then a bit of his hair was standing up and frizzy as could be.

Tony was snickering in front of him, his phone being pulled out of his pocket. Peter widened his eyes and dove for the phone, barely missing it.

“C’mon Petey, it’s not everyday that your child is woke up with crazy hair and has the most adorable sleepy expression on their face. One picture, just one.” Peter grumbled but held still, closing his eyes as the flash from Tony’s phone went off.

“I thought you could just have FRIDAY take a photo whenever you wanted her to.”

“Oh, I can, I just felt like watching you struggle for a second.”

Peter spluttered. “M-Mr. Stark!”

“P-Peter!”

* * *

 

The week of grounding went by quickly, surprisingly. Peter spent a lot of time either in the lab with Tony or was patrolling whenever he didn’t have school. He had to abide by the curfew, not only to respect Tony’s wishes but also because his suit would automatically take control if he was out past 9:30 at night and would auto-pilot back to Tony’s house.

That Monday whenever Peter returned back to school, Flash wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Not in any of the classes that Peter normally shared with Flash, nor was he in the cafeteria at lunch or anywhere in the hallways where Peter’s locker was located at. Now, Peter just thought that Flash was sick and called out or something. That’s what he thought until he heard from Ned that Flash had been seen on the other side of the school in entirely different classes. His locker was on the other side of the school now. It’s like _someone_ did _something_ and caused Flash’s schedule to be changed to not involve Peter in any sort of way and separated the kid entirely away from Peter.

Whenever he heard about it from Ned, Peter almost facepalmed. He knew Tony had done something and as soon as school let out and he got back to Tony’s house, he went straight to the lab.

“What’d you do?” Peter asked, not unkindly.

“I don’t know what you mean, Petey-Pie.” Tony replied, fiddling with some sort of equipment on his desk.

“With Flash. Eugene Thompson.”

“Oh, that kid. I spoke with the principal.”

“You spoke with the principal? And that was it?” Peter said, his incredulous tone flaring in the lab.

Tony turned from his desk to look at Peter, a serious and dark look in his eyes.

“I spoke to the principal. Yes, before you ask, I had to tell Mr. Moronic that you were related to be biologically. Don’t worry though, he had to sign an NDA so he’s legally bound to keep it to himself. Anyways, after explaining the issue and the injuries that you received, received in the middle of a school hallway, the idiot had nothing to say besides that they’ll keep an eye on him. Well, obviously, I didn’t appreciate that and had to literally pay the dumbass off. He favors money over his students safety, figures. With the right amount of cash, he seemed very reasonable and changed the kids schedule and moved him across the school.” Tony seemed to be fuming as he talked. Even though some action had been taken, he seemed to be irritated with how he had to go about getting the change to happen.

“I just don’t understand why the professionals at that school don’t consider taking more responsibility and action towards bullying and other school issues. It took me paying them money to do something but what about the kids whose parents don’t have thousands just lying around? The only reason I was heard was because of money and my status. It’s just messed up. If it was their kids, the professional’s kids, action would be taken immediately but because it’s not their blood, then they don’t matter.”

During the midst of Tony’s rant, Peter just stared at him lovingly. Even though the man was fuming, it was nice to know that Tony was angry not only on Peter’s behalf but on the behalf of the people who couldn’t make a change due to their income or status. It really was a sad world and sad fact to know.

“His name is Principal Morita.” Was the first thing that Peter said.

“Really? _Really?_ Is that all you took in from that? That I called him Principal Moronic instead of Morita. I just called him by his true name because that man is an absolute idiot.” Tony said, eyebrow raised to stare at Peter indignantly.

Peter giggled, lifting a hand to hover over his mouth. “Thank you, Tony. For invoking a change and caring.” He said quietly, smiling.

Tony’s eyes softened from their hard look. “Of course I’d care, buddy. I gotta care about my little minion, right?”

Peter rolled his eyes, knowing that Tony was saying ‘I love you’ but is an emotionally constipated individual sometimes.

“I love you too.” He said, turning around on his heel. “I’m going out patrolling, I’ll text you on my way back. What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Chicken parmesan. Be here and clean and ready to eat at 10. Be careful.” Tony’s voice echoed to him on the way out of the lab.

“Will do.” He said back. Peter was exciting to go patrolling even though he knew that there probably wasn’t going to be much action at four o’clock in the evening. Or even later at night.

Queens had become quiet. Quieter than normal. It was almost like there was a lull in activity or something. It was strange. It felt like something was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this isn't as long as i normally write but this was a quick chapter of fluff before i get back into plot.  
> we're about to start going back to the plotline of homecoming and infinity war and endgame.  
> it's coming

**Author's Note:**

> obviously, updates will be kinda slow as i want to put detail and effort into them, hopefully as i get into writing the better and more interesting parts of the story then my updates will speed up  
> how do ya'll like this idea so far? i promise you, the backstory of Peter is going to be WILD.  
> leave me a comment or bother me on twitter: [@btsfxxkmeup](https://twitter.com/btsfxxkmeup)  
> leave me a kudo perhaps, kudos and comments encourage me to write more


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